This weekend at the box office, while DC's Clayface clawed its way to the top spot, a slew of new releases struggled to find footing. Among them, LAIKA's Wildwood landed third with $11 million, and the comedy Wicker pulled in nearly $6 million in a limited run. But the biggest disappointment came from Taika Waititi's latest sci-fi outing, Klara and the Sun, which not only flopped on arrival but has now been yanked from over a thousand theaters.
Originally slated for a wide release in nearly 2,000 cinemas, Klara and the Sun was scaled back to a platform rollout of about 800 screens after poor reviews and unexpected competition spooked Sony. The film, based on Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel, stars Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, both of whom have been riding a string of underperformers. Despite the star power, the movie managed a paltry $725,000 in its opening weekend—a far cry from the $15 million debut of last week's A24 documentary You Can See Everything, which played in a similar number of theaters.
The film's critical reception has been brutal. Sitting at a 25% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus calls it "cloying and twee," noting it flattens the nuanced ideas of its source material with a tonally broad approach. This marks the second consecutive bomb for Sony after Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning, which also saw a steep decline. Klara and the Sun plummeted 85% in its second weekend, sealing its fate with a projected final gross under $10 million.
For Waititi, this is another setback in a career that once soared with the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit. Since then, he's faced criticism for Thor: Love and Thunder and the troubled sports drama Next Goal Wins. The new film's failure adds to a growing list of high-profile misfires, including Jenna Ortega's brutal theatrical debut and Aaron Sorkin's theater exodus.
The box office has been unforgiving to several recent releases. Anne Hathaway's Verity lost 1,100 theaters, and Jessica Chastain's Other Mommy shed 579. Even Tom Cruise's Digger suffered a historic collapse, losing 3,100 theaters. The pattern suggests audiences are becoming more selective, and star power alone isn't enough to draw crowds.
As Klara and the Sun fades from multiplexes, questions linger about Waititi's next move and whether he can recapture the magic of his earlier work. For now, the film serves as a cautionary tale about the risks of adapting beloved literary works with a heavy-handed touch. Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.
