Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s best-selling sci-fi novel, Klara and the Sun, arrived in theaters last Friday amid overwhelmingly negative reviews (25% on Rotten Tomatoes), and between the critical drubbing and a dismal first week's run at the domestic box office, Sony Pictures has decided to restrict the movie's international rollout.
According to Spanish publication Hobby Consolas (via Collider), Klara and the Sun's planned theatrical release in Spain has been cancelled, and more locations across Europe could follow.
Despite the acclaimed source material and a starry cast featuring Jenna Ortega (Scream), Amy Adams (Man of Steel), Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), and Natasha Lyonne (The Fantastic Four: First Steps), the film only managed to take in a reported $701,059 during its first weekend of release in North America. Its current worldwide total is said to be around $1.44 million.
What went wrong? The reviews certainly didn't help, but a recent Deadline report suggests that the project faced an uphill battle from the start.
"We’d heard that the movie sat around for two years with Sony befuddled as to how to release it. We heard rumors about the studio being at odds with Waititi’s 'free jazz' and 'instinctual' auteur stylings on set (those are adjectives used by rival studio executives who adore and have worked with Waititi). Then there were the bloody reviews out of the London Film Festival (The Guardian called Klara and the Sun 'a sentimental mess').
The original ending of the movie described by one source close to the testing was 'a bummer' and more faithful to the book’s ending. Waititi worked with Gabler in reshoots (which occurred in April 2025 with Ortega) to get the ending to a significantly more positive place. We’ve heard myriad reports about the pic’s testing, that the movie with the original ending came in at an 83% positive and, with the revised upbeat ending, went up to 87% positive. Other sources in the know tell us that the test scores were “just fine” and that audiences didn’t buy into the tonality nor did they connect with the characters."
Waititi has helmed several critically acclaimed and very successful films (even the divisive Love and Thunder went on to become the highest-grossing Thor movie), but this definitely represents a career setback. The filmmaker recently revealed that the Star Wars movie he was working on for Disney/Lucasfilm has been shelved.
Have any of you seen Klara and the Sun? Were the critics too harsh, or are you not surprised that the movie is bombing at the box office?
Based on the bestselling novel from Nobel Prize-winner Kazuo Ishiguro and written and directed by Academy-Award® winner Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), Klara and the Sun introduces audiences to Klara (Jenna Ortega), an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home. When Klara meets Josie (Mia Tharia), each immediately senses a kindred spirit in the other. Josie has a fraught relationship with her mother (Amy Adams) and they’ve suffered great loss, but Klara’s innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty begin to heal the family and bring light to Josie’s complicated world.