Sony Pulls ‘Klara and the Sun’ From Spain After $701,000 Opening
The Taika Waititi film opened in 880 theaters and averaged about $797 per theater. A week later, its planned Spanish release was canceled.
Sony Pictures has canceled the planned Spanish theatrical release of Klara and the Sun. The move came one week after the film opened in North America.
Spanish publication Hobby Consolas first reported the cancellation, which was then picked up by Collider and ComingSoon. No replacement date was announced.
The film opened October 23 in 880 theaters in North America. It took in $701,059 over its opening weekend, an average of about $797 per theater. After its first week, its worldwide total stood at about $1.7 million, according to Box Office Mojo figures reported Saturday.
By its second Friday, the daily take had fallen sharply. Deadline's Saturday box office report put that Friday at an estimated $45,000, down 84 percent from opening day. The same report noted that Sony had stopped reporting the film's numbers.
The retreat started before opening day. Sony had planned a wide release in nearly 2,000 theaters. It cut that plan to 880 theaters the day before release, after the film's premiere at the BFI London Film Festival drew poor reviews.
Critics were blunt. The film holds a 25 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Guardian called it a sentimental mess. The Telegraph called it the most infantile film of the year.
Audiences who did see it were kinder. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score stood at 78 percent. Exit polls were more mixed: 69 percent positive, with 48 percent saying they would definitely recommend it.
Deadline reported that the film sat on Sony's shelf for two years while the studio worked out how to release it. Filming wrapped in 2024. The studio put the net cost in the high $20 millions before marketing, with Spyglass and TSG covering about half. Marketing spending stayed under $30 million worldwide.
The film is directed by Taika Waititi, who won an Academy Award for the adapted screenplay of Jojo Rabbit. It adapts Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel. Jenna Ortega plays Klara, a solar-powered artificial companion bought for a sick teenager. Amy Adams plays the teenager's mother. Mia Tharia plays the daughter, Josie. Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne also appear.
Test screenings had looked better than the opening. Deadline reported an original ending tested at 83 percent positive, and a revised, more upbeat ending at 87 percent. At the box office, younger viewers stayed away. Only 19 percent of the opening audience was under 25, while women over 25 made up 33 percent. One source told Deadline that Ortega's fans were not seeing this as their movie.
Sony films head to Netflix after theaters under the studio's streaming deal. No streaming date for Klara and the Sun has been announced.
