Grumpy Cat made nearly $100 million? Not quite, owner says.
Editor's note:听 An earlier version of this 听post reported 听that Grumpy Cat 听had earned her owner nearly $100 million in two years. It has been corrected to include Tabatha Bundesen's denial of 听those reports.听
Earlier today, several media outlets (including this one) reported that Grumpy Cat, the dour feline who rocketed to meme superstardom a few short years ago, had earned a reported $99.5 million in just two years for owner Tabatha Bundesen, a former Red Lobster waitress who parlayed her cat鈥檚 online popularity into a lucrative brand. The claim originated in 听 a British tabloid.
Ms. Bundesen called the report "completely false" Monday afternoon. She didn't specify Grumpy Cat's actual earnings.
Grumpy Cat, who goes by Tardar Sauce in her private life, makes her money through appearances at conventions like South by Southwest and Comicon, as well licensing for a wide variety of products, including a series听 of best-selling children鈥檚 books, greeting cards, Friskies cat food, a line of听 coffee drinks called 鈥淕rumpucchinos,鈥� and even a feature film 鈥� 鈥淕rumpy Cat鈥檚 Worst Christmas Ever" premiered on Lifetime over Thanksgiving weekend.
"What she鈥檚 achieved in such a short time is unimaginable and absolutely mind-blowing,鈥� Ms. Bundesen told Express. 鈥淚 was able to quit my job as a waitress within days of her first appearance on social media and the phone simply hasn鈥檛 stopped ringing since.鈥� 听
Grumpy Cat first caught the Web鈥檚 attention in 2012, when Bundesen鈥檚 brother posted a photo of the newly-adopted the online platform reddit. The picture spread quickly, with users tacking on gloomy captions like 鈥淚 purred once. It was awful.鈥�
As her fame grew, the Bundesens hired Ben Lashes, a self-styled 鈥淚nternet meme talent manager鈥� whose clients also include 鈥淜eyboard Cat鈥� ( a cat who plays the piano keyboard in a series of popular videos). 听Grumpy Cat is registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and licensed merchandise like T-shirts and mugs are sold at major retailers like Hot Topic. Among her numerous media appearances, she has been featured in a commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios, as well as in the finale of the most recent season of 鈥淭he Bachelorette.鈥�
听Grumpy Cat is far from the first Internet cat luminary: the online cat-industrial complex, has a relatively long tradition in Japan, where famous names like Maru (famous for jumping in boxes) and听 Shiro (famous for letting his owners stack things on him) have been racking up hits for years. The cat video field has become so crowded, in fact, that Minneapolis hosted the first cat video festival in 2012, with Oakland, Calif. following suit the next year.听
There are signs that the Grumpy Cat star may be fading: the critical reception for 鈥淕rumpy Cat鈥檚 Worst Christmas Ever,鈥� was lukewarm at听 best, with what Entertainment Weekly called 鈥渟ub-purr鈥� ratings. Still: my cat, great as she is, has yet to earn me a nickel (if anything, she鈥檚 on the hook for nine years of food and vet bills)听 and I suspect the vast majority of the world鈥檚 cat owners would say the same. A cat that can generate any income, even if it's not $100 million, is nothing to be sneered at.
Well, from Grumpy Cat's perspective, maybe it is.听
