Taika Waititi lashed out at professional reviewers on social media, dismissing critics of his film Klara and the Sun as failed artists following a disastrous North American box office opening of just $701,000.
Director Attacks Critics After Box Office Flop
The commercial performance of Klara and the Sun provoked a fierce reaction from its director.
Eight days after the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel debuted on October 23, Taika Waititi took to Instagram to denounce the professional critics who panned the project.
Opening in 880 North American venues, the film pulled in a dismal $701,000 on its first weekend, averaging just under $800 per theater and landing in 16th place.
Sony reportedly scaled back the film’s limited theatrical footprint to 880 locations after Klara and the Sun performed poorly at the box office.
By its second weekend, the film plunged 79% to $145,000.
In the UK, the picture brought in an opening weekend of £176,000 across 368 venues for a £477 average, while its planned theatrical release in Spain was cancelled entirely.
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
The director pointed to a sharp contrast between professional reviews and audience sentiment, noting that while review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes registered a low critic score, viewer ratings remained far higher.
Waititi asserted that he had avoided reading reviews of his work for nearly 15 years, declaring that he listens directly to the people instead.
Reviewers Pan Adaptation for Listless Tone and Acting
Critical reception for the film remained deeply negative.
Reviewers characterized the adaptation as listless, uneven, and cloying, arguing that its comedic tone flattened the serious drama of Ishiguro’s 2021 source material.
The divergence between critical evaluations and audience reception formed the core of the public debate surrounding the release.
| Metric | Critic Score | Audience Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Rotten Tomatoes | 26% | 78% |
Reviewers across major publications offered negative assessments.
The Guardian’s chief critic Peter Bradshaw dismissed the project in a one-star review as unbearably mannered
and unspeakably acted
, while the LA Times’ Tim Grierson wrote that the director lacquered the film with a calculated gooeyness
that quickly grew exasperating.
Similar notices appeared in Slant Magazine and The A.V. Club, where critics pointed to unconvincing social satire and adrift performances.
Director Reshoots Novel For Screen
Starring Jenna Ortega as Klara and Mia Tharia as Josie, the film introduced notable departures from Ishiguro’s novel.
Taika Waititi is slamming "Klara and the Sun" critics as "sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists": “I haven’t read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people. So this Halloween, let’s spare a… pic.twitter.com/0meKuySBpo
Reviewers and analysts noted that the adaptation sanitized the death of a key character and omitted Josie’s father, altering the story’s philosophical weight regarding parental autonomy and artificial intelligence.
Before release, the production faced scheduling hurdles.
Filming wrapped in 2024 and the film sat on Sony’s shelf for two years.
Waititi worked with producer Elizabeth Gabler in reshoots in April 2025 to adjust the ending.
Despite the commercial struggles, cast members defended their approach to the material.
Ortega remarked that she preferred not to focus on box office metrics, while Waititi explained his creative balancing act to trade publications prior to launch.
I wanted to make sure that I brought my own tone that I usually do to my films into this, but I didn’t want to mess too much with the actual sort of overall tone of how the book reads, because it is really beautiful, that book. It’s, you know, a slow burn and on the surface, not much happens. It’s just so much bubbling away underneath.
Taika Waititi, via Entertainment Weekly
Sony Hides Box Office After Weekend Drop
Following the steep second-weekend drop and the withdrawal of its Spanish theatrical run, industry observers tracked the film’s next moves.
Sony chose to stop reporting box office numbers for the project as domestic earnings hovered near $1 million and worldwide figures reached approximately $1.74 million.
The public friction between the filmmaker and professional reviewers added the project to a long history of artistic clashes over negative press.
