Waititi Dismisses Critics After Klara and the Sun’s Weak Opening

Taika Waititi has pushed back against critics’ response to Klara and the Sun, using an Instagram post on October 31 to highlight the gap between the film’s audience and critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes. The image showed a 78% audience rating and a critic score of 28%; another tally put the critic score at 26%. The audience figure was later listed as 73%.

Waititi wrote that he had avoided reading reviews of work by himself and his peers for nearly 15 years, but paid attention to audiences. He derided reviewers who disliked the movie as people who had wanted to become artists, and called them out of touch and obsolete. He also noted that some of the same critics had disliked his film Jojo Rabbit.

The Sony release opened last weekend in 880 North American theaters, earning roughly $700,000 and debuting outside the top 10. Sony reduced the film’s theatrical run after the critical response. One account put its opening at $701,000, while other estimates were about $720,000 to $725,000.

The film adapts Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel and stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, an android companion who tries to connect with Josie, a seriously ill young girl. Amy Adams also stars. Ortega has said she avoids reviews and box-office updates about her films because she does not want those figures to affect her.

At the film’s New York premiere, Waititi discussed artificial intelligence, which is central to the story. He said he expected AI to enter the film industry, but wanted it used as a tool alongside human workers rather than as a replacement.