When Jenna Ortega transitioned from her Disney Channel days to a full-fledged Hollywood career, it felt like everything she touched would be a hit. However, as of late, the 24-year-old is having a bit of a slump as far as the critics are concerned. Sadly, I just noticed her latest movie, Klara and the Sun, continues this trend further.
I’ve been excited to see Klara and the Sun since it landed on the 2026 movie schedule. I love the book, but since the press tour has been going on, I’ve seen more buzz about Jenna Ortega’s noticeably brighter fashion moments than the movie itself. Lately, she dazzled in a steel rod dress and wore white on the front of Vogue, but interest in the movie seems to have fizzled way down. I also noticed that Klara and the Sun is Ortega’s third straight film to come out with a “rotten” score on RT.
After 64 reviews, the newest of book-to-screen adaptations has earned a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics are calling the movie things like “flat”, “a letdown” and a “disaster”. This comes after Ortega had two disappointing films last year, Hurry Up Tomorrow and Death of a Unicorn. Hurry Up Tomorrow was given a 14% (and a C- on CinemaScore), and Death of a Unicorn has a 52% (and a B- on CinemaScore). Both were major box office flops, too.
In terms of commercial performance for Klara and the Sun, Deadline has reported that it will have an opening of $725k, not even ranking in the top eight of new releases. And that’s against a reported production budget of $40 million. Some of this has to do with Sony Pictures deciding to cut the movie from 1,000 theaters, with it only going to a modest 880 now. For the kind of star power Jenna Ortega has amassed, it’s a real bummer to see this happen to her latest movie.
Jenna Ortega’s last well-reviewed movie and commercial success was 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which remains her biggest commercial hit so far. It checked all the boxes between its 76% RT score, B+ CinemaScore and making almost half a billion at the worldwide box office. Then, of course, there’s the fact that both Wednesday seasons have some of the best viewership for Netflix of all time.
Ortega seems like the kind of actor who’s more interested in making what she wants to than having mass appeal. But this current trend doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence in fans such as myself. I want to be able to anticipate her in a movie and get excited about the quality of the experience I’m going to have watching it. I still expect to see Ortega continue to be successful, of course, but I really hope the current changes direction for her upcoming projects.
Ortega recently wrapped production on Wednesday, which I’m pumped for, of course. She also has a movie with Glen Powell and J.J. Abrams called The Great Beyond coming out a year from now, and she’s got a buzzy project with If I Had Legs I’d Kick You's director and Rose Byrne in the works as well.
I just want to see our girl crush it! That being said, I wouldn’t always trust critical and commercial success to align with one's enjoyment of a movie. You can check out Klara and the Sun in theaters now.
