Last Friday, on the opening day of Cats — the live-action film based on the beloved Andrew Lloyd Webber musical — Universal Pictures reportedly notified thousands of cinemas across the globe that they would be receiving an updated version of the film.
The film production company issued the note telling theatres the updates would feature “some improved visual effects,” according to multiple sources, including the Hollywood Reporter.
A copy of the reported notification began circulating on Twitter over the weekend, revealing that the film’s 110-minute runtime remains “unchanged” after the VFX updates.
The edits come after a wave of critical reviews, with many pointing out the “distracting” CGI used in the film and the “jarring” nature of those elements.
While Cats has been received poorly, for the most part, the updates may not have been inspired by that, as director Tom Hooper admitted during an interview with Variety that he had finished the film less than 36 hours before its New York City premiere.
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The 47-year-old director also claimed he was “very happy to be fully finished” with the film.
The “improved visual effects” reportedly began rolling out on Sunday via a satellite server and will be accessible to all movie theatres through a hard drive by Dec. 24, according to Universal.
The media giant is requesting that all cinemas showing Cats replace the previous version of the film as soon as possible.
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While the US$100-million movie only pulled in $10.9 million at the global box office last weekend — as opposed to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s $198 million — the visual effects updates could prompt people to go see the film and propel those numbers forward.
As suggested by a number of Twitter users, most viewers want to see Cats before it is adjusted so they get to experience the film as it was initially intended, rather than seeing the polished version.
Here’s what some Twitter users had to say:
One user tweeted: “I love that they’re patching Cats to improve the visual effects as if the movie looking like a f–king ugly fever dream isn’t the reason everybody wanted to watch it to begin with.”
If Universal Pictures’ memo was accurate, Cats will be updated by this Tuesday, meaning Monday, Dec. 23 might be your last chance to catch the original cut of the film.
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Cats is now playing in cinemas across Canada.
The full film trailer can be seen in the video above.