Following a dismal $701,059 North American opening weekend for his new film adaptation of Klara and the Sun, director Taika Waititi lashed out at professional reviewers on social media, dismissing critics as obsolete and unsuccessful artists.
Box Office Numbers and Rotten Tomatoes Scores
Released by Sony Pictures on a reported budget of $20 million, Klara and the Sun stumbled out of the gate with just $701,000 during its opening weekend in North America across 880 locations. That figure worked out to an average of just under $800 (£596) per theater, placing the film 16th at the box office. In the UK, the film brought in £176,000 from 368 venues for an average of £477. The commercial slump deepened in its second weekend, with domestic earnings dropping 79% to $145,000 (£108,000).
The critical reception proved equally harsh. The adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 dystopian novel currently sits at a 26 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes from 90 reviews. Reviewers called the film listless, uneven, and cloying, with The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw describing it in a one-star review as unbearably mannered and soft-centred sci-fi-lite. Conversely, audiences have offered a much warmer response, registering a 78 per cent audience rating on the review aggregator site.
Taika Waititi Ffires Back on Social Media
Following the film’s premiere, Waititi took to Instagram on Halloween to deliver a sharp rebuke of the critical establishment. Comparing the reception to reviews of his 2019 black comedy Jojo Rabbit—which earned an 81 per cent critic score and an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay—the director did not hold back.
Meet Klara. Your new best (artificial) friend. 🌞Jenna Ortega is Klara in Director Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s #KlaraAndTheSun – coming exclusively to theatres October 23. Watch the trailer now. https://t.co/5ANXYE52Ef pic.twitter.com/TrOLD6EwkU
This Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit … Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.
Taika Waititi, via The Guardian and The Independent
Waititi also noted in his post that he had not read a review of his own work or that of his peers in almost 15 years, choosing instead to focus on audience reactions.
Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams Star in the Adaptation
The movie adapts Ishiguro’s novel set in a dystopian future where artificial intelligence companions are sold to humans. Jenna Ortega stars as Klara, an Artificial Friend whose existence shifts after she is purchased by a family for Josie, a teenager whose health is deteriorating following a genetic enhancement procedure. Mia Tharia plays Josie. The book itself was championed by Sony-based 3000 Pictures producer Elizabeth Gabler back in 2023, while Waititi co-wrote the script alongside Dahvi Waller. In bringing the narrative to the screen, Waititi and Waller worked to preserve the tone of the book, which the director noted is fundamentally a serious and quiet drama rather than a comedy.
Sony Retrenchment and International Cancellations
Following the weak opening figures and poor critical notices, Sony stopped reporting box office numbers for the film while keeping the worldwide marketing spend well under $30 million. The commercial fallout also crossed international borders, with Spanish publication Hobby Consolas reporting that the film’s planned theatrical release in Spain has been cancelled entirely in response to the negative reviews and box office results.
