Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun, starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, opened this weekend to $701,000 across 880 theaters, a per-screen average of under $800, per Deadline.
SEVENTY-ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. For a movie whose star has 39 million followers. 880 theaters splitting $701K means the average screen made less than $800 over the weekend — at a used car lot that is a 1997 Civic with a ticking engine, and at a movie theater it is a rounding error.
Sony sat on this one for a year — or two; the studio insiders and their sources disagree, which is a confession of its own — before the London reviews hit "like a swat of hand ninjas," in Deadline's phrase, and The Guardian called it "a sentimental mess." Rotten Tomatoes critics: 25%. The audience score: 78% — after being missing from the site for the entire weekend and then mysteriously appearing on Monday. It went somewhere to rest, and then it came back.
The saddest part is the ending. The original, sadder, book-faithful ending tested at 83% positive; Waititi reshoot it into "a significantly more positive place" and it tested at 87%. Four points. They fixed the sun, and audiences still walked out mid-picture over the weekend — 69% positive, 48% definite recommend. One source said Jenna Ortega's fans "were not seeing this as their movie." That is FUBU, as they say: For Us, By Us. Klara is for everyone, by no one.
YOUR TURN: If the sun is going to die, should it at least die on schedule and without a test score?
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