My God, Taika Waititi. After Thor: Love and Thunder was a resounding (and noisy) failure with critics and audiences, the director once called on to save Marvel and Star Wars has sunk hard. So much so that, after his last two films, it’s likely no one is ever going to give him a moderately high budget again until he proves he can deliver a hit. In particular, his latest film, Klara and the Sun, has been such a huge failure that they’ve decided to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Klara and the Flop
The film not only has just a 25% critics’ approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes right now, but, on top of that, it has grossed only $972,531 in the United States… against a budget of around $20 million. The flop has been so severe that much of its international release has been canceled to keep the blow from being even worse.
Although it did make it to theaters in Italy, Australia, and New Zealand (with no sign of success), Disney has canceled its release in Spain and, possibly, in other parts of Europe, where it wouldn’t be surprising if it showed up directly on streaming and under the radar. It’s certainly not a good sign for someone who, supposedly, already had a Star Wars film lined up.
It’s worth pointing out that it’s not as if he made the film as some shot in the dark with amateur actors: Jenna Ortega stars in it, and alongside her are Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, and Natasha Lyonne. The only thing these four stars have in common is being directed by someone who, right now, is a liability at the box office. Whether he’ll one day return to his roots and be able to prove he’s worth it, I’m afraid, remains to be seen.
