Grumpy Cat has earned almost $100 million in 2 years
Grumpy Cat at Toy Fair 2014 with Ganz products. Photo: Ricky Brigante under creative commons license.
Tabatha, Grumpy Cat’s owner denies that her cat earns this extraordinary amount of money for her. That should be on record at the beginning but the official version is as follows……
I won’t bang on about cat exploitation as I have made my views known a couple of years ago. Even then I felt Grumy Cat was being exploited. But now we are told that she has made almost $100 million (USD) for her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, (living in Arizona, USA) in just 2 years ($99.5 million to be exact, or about £64 million GBP). This is an astonishing sum of money. It was mentioned on the radio this morning (LBC 97.3 Steven Allen show).
This is earning at a rate which beats pretty well all the top film stars. I think it also beats almost all the top sport stars. For example Grumpy Cat beats perhaps the world’s best footballer, Christiano Ronaldo, who has earned $42.2 million in 2014.
And, for example, Gwyneth Paltrow earned, by comparison, a paltry $18.6 million last year.
The earnings for Grumpy have come from a film, the face of Friskies®, coffee promotions, photo sessions, books and anything else that can be promoted by a cat with a grumpy face.
Tabatha says:
“What she’s achieved in such a short time is unimaginable and absolutely mind-blowing. I was able to quit my job as a waitress within days of her first appearance on social media, and the phone simply hasn’t stopped ringing since.”
What can you say? Amazing commercial success but…this sort of success is only appreciated by people. Grumpy has no use for money. I suppose he gets and extra plate of the finest cat food. I hope so anyway.
From the perspective of Grumpy Cat it must have been a hard year but very few people see this from the cat’s perspective and when I bring up the subject people moan at me and complain. Grumpy Cat needs a voice.
But surely it is fair and reasonable to see what is lauded as an outstanding success from the perspective of the star who’s existence is the reason for the success? I don’t see any difference from this form of animal exploitation to any other.
Tabatha, the owner, says the figure of $100m is grossly exaggerated and might give an interview on the true amount.
Wow. (from Wikipedia) “By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, it was worth $7 billion a year, all without any advertising.”
That is seven thousand piles of one million US dollar bills.
I think Grumpy Cat is being short-changed, with only 100 piles of a million dollar each.
(the world is truly insane, yes?)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/top-cat-how-hello-kitty-conquered-the-world-831522.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Kitty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat
…and, my all-time favorite iconic cat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA50fz9ZWE0
I think Grumpy is destined to be the first cat billionaire. If she lives long enough.
I am just joking in case you wondered.
Wow, that’s an amazing amount earned over a relatively short period of time. How sad that shelters struggle to raise those kind of funds.
As for the cat’s owners, it must feel like they’ve won the lottery. Which is kind of ironic when you calculate the genetic odds of Tardar Sauce (Grumpy’s real name) looking the way she does.
I understand Tardar’s owners donate some of her income to no-kill shelters. I just hope it’s a decent percentage.
Yeah, this is the results of what we have been talking about for awhile now. Tabitha has left no request unfulfilled. I’m sure Grumpy will build up to the constant travel after a few years, but I worry that she will die young. All because her greedy mom doesn’t want to work.
Excellent point Dan. She may die young for whatever reason. That will change the complexion of the story.
For the millionth time, Grumpy Cat is a FEMALE!!!!
Did I get it wrong? No, it appears I did not. But to be fair, it is easy to get it wrong because the name drives one to thinking of a grumpy old man. We don’t have grumpy old women. We have crazy cat women 😉 .
Is he in the next James Bond film “SPECTRE” or will his fees be too much for the producers to cough up ? Its unbelievable wealth for a cat that has defied natures cruel joke on its “GRUMPY APPEARANCE”.”GRUMPY” cats enterprising human owners are the ultimate beneficiaries of her wealth.
That is a cool comment. Made me laugh. Grumpy’s fee would be higher than Daniel Craig. He’s too expensive.
God Bless the “free market” and our capitalistic economic system!
(I am currently poking Itchy Brother in an attempt to make him look as “Grumpy” as I can, with my camera at hand. He ain’t going for it, and looks only a bit ‘miffed’. I don’t see a new Jaguar motorcar anytime soon in our future at this rate)
Exploitation? You bet. and I applaud it!
(Methinks Grumpy Cat has a long way to go before he matches his most nearest ‘rival’: the Japanese line-art icon known as the “Hello Kitty”, however)
Many people might argue that so much good could be done with that kind of money: saving starving children in third-world counties, bringing clean water to hundreds of tiny, thirsty villages, etc etc.
But would that bring the same smile to one’s face, as pulling out your key-chain and seeing Grumpy Cat on the fob?
NO WAY!!!
Ms. Tabatha Bundesen, of Arizona, USA deserves every dollar of that $100 million!
Do you hear that, Itchy Brother? Now FROWN, for the camera, dammnit!!! Daddy needs a new Jag!
Hello Kitty is a drawing, not a real cat. She is a drawing.
LOL.
I am for capitalism and a free market. I am more for animal welfare. I think we can earn enough money without exploiting cats and animals in general.