Jenna Ortega’s 39M Followers Couldn’t Save Klara and the Sun

By Nico Grey · Published Nov 4, 2026, 4:54 AM (BKK)

I once had a book on the bestseller list and couldn’t fill a reading at a bookshop in Pasadena. Four people. One was asleep, one was my agent. So I know this feeling, Jenna. I know it in my liver.

Jenna Ortega’s Klara and the Sun opened to just $701,000 from 880 theaters, despite her roughly 39 million followers. Now a 2023 clip is viral: Elle Fanning says she lost a role over Instagram followers, and Jenna says casting doubted her “platform” even after Wednesday.

The post that started it said Jenna “is in the top 200 most followed people on Instagram and couldn’t sell a single ticket for her new movie.” It passed 840,000 views. Underneath it, the quoted clip is the part that matters.

Watch: Jenna Ortega and Elle Fanning on followers

What Elle Fanning and Jenna Ortega actually said

This is Variety’s Actors on Actors from June 2023 (Variety). Jenna says her first agency told her she had to have a public platform, and that as a kid on TV they sent her to media training with a notebook and told her to post three times a day: “This is how you build followers.” Elle, the same year, said she missed out on “something big, a franchise thing” because the feedback was that she didn’t have enough Instagram followers (Variety). Jenna: even after shooting Wednesday, casting would call her team and say they liked her but didn’t know if she had “enough of a platform, or enough of a name.”

Klara and the Sun at the box office

Three years later she has the followers. Deadline counted about 39 million. Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, has her as Klara, a robot bought by a sick girl’s mother (Amy Adams). It opened on Oct. 23 to $701,000 from 880 theaters and finished 16th. The second weekend dropped about 79% (The Guardian). The critics’ Rotten Tomatoes score is around 25%. Audiences gave it 74% to 78%. Waititi answered by calling critics “sad lost souls” on Halloween.

Deadline says she did the full tour: London, Rome, a New York premiere, Drew Barrymore, Seth Meyers, Today, and posts about every carpet (Deadline). She also had to shoot Wednesday season 3 from February to September, which kept the film out of Cannes.

Jenna Ortega’s Klara and the Sun press tour, in photos

Elias Matso steel and crystal gown

Rome Film Festival screening

Rome photocall, 1966 Pierre Cardin

Vogue, November 2026

And Elle Fanning? She’s doing fine

Elle is in the middle of her own press tour as Effie Trinket in the new Hunger Games film, and has never looked better. Robert Wun couture in London, a Valentino butterfly gown at the Academy Museum Gala, Coach at the CFDA Awards. The franchise came for her eventually.

Hunger Games London screening

Academy Museum Gala and CFDA Awards

FAQ

How much did Klara and the Sun make at the box office?

It opened to $701,000 from 880 North American theaters on Oct. 23, 2026, under $800 per theater, and fell about 79% in its second weekend.

Did Elle Fanning lose a role because of Instagram followers?

Yes, by her account. In 2023 she said she missed out on an unnamed franchise film, and the feedback she heard was that she didn’t have enough Instagram followers at the time.

What did Jenna Ortega say about followers and casting?

On Variety’s Actors on Actors she said that even after shooting Wednesday, casting teams told her team they liked her but weren’t sure she had enough of a platform or a name.

Who stars in Klara and the Sun?

Jenna Ortega plays Klara, a robot, with Amy Adams and Mia Tharia. Taika Waititi directed it from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.

How many followers does Jenna Ortega have?

Deadline put her at about 39 million followers on social media when Klara and the Sun opened.

— Nico. Four people at my reading. One asleep. I still signed his book.

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Clip: Variety Actors on Actors, as shared on X. Photos: agencies and magazine. ScandalPlanet watermark only.

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