While 2026 is shaping up to be a historic year for the post-pandemic box office, for every good movie we get, there is usually another that totally misses its mark. Jenna Ortega’s latest sci-fi expedition, Klara and the Sun, being the much more unfortunate latter.
With a story from Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, a script from Academy Award-winner Taika Waititi, and a star-studded roster (Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne), Klara and the Sun had a lot of positive momentum going into development.
However, the movie still struggled to receive positive responses from critics upon its release last week, earning a 25% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of reporting. Its opening weekend box office numbers were extremely disappointing as a result, and now, the movie is being forced to make some major pivots to its international release schedule.
Multiple outlets report that Klara and the Sun — which released nationally on Oct. 23 — planned an international release in Spain, but after its disappointing opening weekend in the United States, the film’s creative team is canceling this part of its wider theatrical push.
It is unclear if a Spain release will be rescheduled at a later date, but according to Spanish publication Hobby Consolas, Sony Pictures confirmed that they pulled the movie after receiving poor reviews and box office results in its opening weekend.
Klara and the Sun came out of its premiere weekend earning just over $700 thousand, numbers that put the film on the list for one of the biggest opening-weekend flops in 2026. According to Collider, it was initially scheduled to be released in over 1,900 American theaters, but eventually scaled back to 880 theaters after poor early reviews.
The sci-fi story follows an artificial friend named Klara (Ortega) who wants nothing more than a place she can call home. In her search, Klara makes a connection with a grief-stricken Josie (Mia Tharia), who carries a difficult relationship with her mother (Amy Adams). But Klara’s innocent sense of wonder and fierce loyalty might just be the thing this complicated family needs to heal things.
With 88 RT reviews sitting under its Tomatometer at the time of reporting, the problem a lot of critics seem to have with the movie is that its approach was too broad. “Klara and the Sun is a story of faith with no soul,” said Mashable‘s Kristy Puchko. Other critics also noted that the film’s emphasis on comedy made it difficult to latch on to the more profound elements it wanted to suggest.
The audience RT score, on the other hand, remains much more positive — currently sitting at 74% after 100-plus reviews. “Holy crap, this movie made me cry,” said one viewer. “It’s the kind of movie that’ll make you feel a thousand emotions.”
And while audiences are having a much better time than critics, it hasn’t yet been enough to pull the movie out of the trenches. Though who knows, perhaps a later streaming release will give the movie a much stronger second wind.
- Release Date
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October 23, 2026
- Runtime
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116 minutes
