Taika Waititi is answering the critical response to Klara and the Sun by pointing to a sharp split between reviewers and moviegoers.
The director posted the film’s poster on Instagram on Saturday, drawing attention to its Rotten Tomatoes scores. The image showed a 78 percent audience score alongside a 28 percent critics score.
Waititi said he has avoided reading reviews directed at him or his peers for nearly 15 years, but indicated that he still pays attention to audiences.
“I haven’t read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people,” he wrote. “So this Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.”
The blunt post arrives as Klara and the Sun faces a challenging theatrical start. The film, which opened in theaters the previous week, earned an estimated $725,000 during its opening weekend and debuted outside the top 10.
It launched in 880 theaters across North America. At the time of publication, its worldwide gross stood at approximately $1.7 million.
Inside Klara and the Sun
Waititi’s film is adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel of the same name. Set in a dystopian future, the story centers on an obsolete companion android attempting to form a connection with Josie, a young owner who is dealing with an illness.
Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams star in the film. Artificial intelligence is central to its premise through the story’s use of AI companions, a subject Waititi also addressed at the movie’s New York premiere earlier this month.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker acknowledged the continuing discussion over how artificial intelligence could be used within the entertainment industry. Although he described some level of adoption as probably unavoidable, he drew a distinction between AI functioning as a tool and serving as a substitute for people.
“There’s a big discussion about AI coming in: Will people use it? How much will they use it? I know it’s probably inevitable that we end up using it in our industry, but as long as it’s used by humans as a tool, as opposed to a replacement — I don’t want to replace humans. I want to work with them,” Waititi said.
ShowBiz Take
Waititi’s Instagram response turns the film’s divided Rotten Tomatoes reception into the center of the conversation. Rather than addressing individual reviews, he is using the audience score to challenge the relevance of the broader critical verdict.
The 50-point difference between the two scores gives that argument a clear numerical hook: audiences represented on the platform were substantially more positive than critics at the time captured in the poster. Waititi’s reference to Jojo Rabbit also makes clear that he sees the latest reviews as part of a wider disconnect between critics and reactions he considers more meaningful.
At the same time, the film’s early box-office figures provide another measure of its reception. With an estimated $725,000 opening weekend from 880 North American theaters and a debut outside the top 10, Klara and the Sun began its theatrical run with modest commercial results.
For now, the film is generating two distinct discussions: one about the divide between critics and audiences, and another about AI’s place in stories and in the industry itself. Waititi has made his position on both subjects unusually direct—he is dismissing the negative critical consensus while arguing that artificial intelligence should support human work rather than replace it.