Klara and the Sun bombs with the lowest wide opening of Jenna Ortega’s career

Jenna Ortega usually turns up in films that do a bit of business, doesn't she? With Wednesday on telly and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pulling in blockbuster money, she's become something of a household name. This time round, though, her new sci-fi drama Klara and the Sun has failed to fire up the box office, even with Taika Waititi (yes, the Oscar-winner) directing and a well-loved novel as its base. The whole thing's been a bit underwhelming, bordering on a flop by normal Hollywood standards.

Klara and the Sun earned just $725,000 from 880 US cinemas in its first weekend, landing outside the top 10 at no. 14.

A Sputtering Start

Klara and the Sun turned up in cinemas on 23 October, and that's where things started to wobble. The promotion was practically non-existent, critics were grumpy early on, and Sony didn't seem convinced either—limiting the film to fewer than a thousand screens across the States. Instead of the red-carpet rollout, it felt like they'd quietly slipped this one out the back door. No surprise, then, that audiences barely noticed.

The opening weekend numbers are frankly brutal: just under $725K from 880 cinemas, working out at a not-so-grand average of $823 per screen. That doesn't even put it in the top 10 for the week; it dragged itself in at 14th place. For context, the film cost a reported $20 million to make, so this is a long way from breakeven. And that's not even the only record it's broken—it now holds the dubious title of the lowest wide release opening ever for Ortega and for Waititi. Ouch.

The Film Itself

So what's the story? Ortega plays Klara, an Artificial Friend—a humanoid robot, basically—who's got herself convinced that the sun is some sort of benevolent deity. She’s bought by a family to hang out with their daughter Josie, who's chronically ill and embroiled in typical difficult-family drama. It’s all based on the literary source material, but here the big stumble seems to be Waititi's attempt to inject a lighter, more comedic touch, which is not what the book’s fans were after. Critics have certainly noticed: at last check, Rotten Tomatoes has it stuck at 24%.

How Did It Go This Way?

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Ortega’s last cinema effort, started with over $110 million in 2024—worlds apart from this one.
• Big names don't always guarantee bums on seats, especially when you don’t have a familiar franchise to lean on.
• Before release, the trade press reckoned on $6–10 million for its opening. Instead, it missed even the bottom of that range by miles.
• Sony’s soft rollout, icy reviews, and virtually invisible advertising have combined into a near-textbook flop scenario.

Even Ortega’s profile and Waititi’s behind-the-camera clout weren’t enough to sell audiences on this one, at least not with a release so muted it was hardly there at all.

Apparently, some films need a bit more than just name recognition and a bookish pedigree to avoid vanishing without a trace.