THEY were once seen as an A-list power couple, but Rita Ora and Taika Waititi have seen an astonishing fall from grace.
, who won Best Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit in 2019, has seen his most recent film dramatically bomb at the box office, as it was widely panned by critics.
In spite of starring Netflix superstar , the movie earned an average of just $17 per cinema across 880 US cinemas in one dismal day last week before it was finally pulled by defeated bosses on Tuesday.
And things are scarcely any better from where is sitting.
The former Hot Right Now chart-topper, who released new single The Current last Friday with surprisingly little fanfare, her last four singles have failed to break into the UK top 100.
The Sun revealed earlier this year that Rita, 35, is locked in a £32.million , who helped make Rita a star after signing her in 2009, over missing TV and tour money.
Music powerhouse Sarah has lodged papers at the High Court claiming her firm FAE Ventures is owed millions.
And in a brutal further blow, Rita, who has repeatedly gushed that her husband is a “genius” director, recently saw him cut her acting scenes out of Klara and The Sun in the final edit of the film.
Last month actress Jenna, who plays “companion” Klara in the dystopian flick, revealed in an interview that Taika, 51, cut Rita’s cameo alongside his own.
She said: “He was in the film at a point and then he cut himself out.
“He must have cut it for a reason, and I’m not going to air him out I think.”
She added: “But Rita was in it as well. He cut him and his missus out!”
As it turns out, Rita might now be glad she didn’t appear in the movie, unquestionably the worst of her husband’s latest flops.
The Sony film, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 Booker Prize-longlisted novel, was slammed as “calamitous” and “confoundingly awful” by critics – earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 25%.
The dismal reception earned movie critics a sharp tongue-lashing from Taika, who wrote on social media: “This Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics.”
He added: “The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit … Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.”
Yet his words failed to reassure panicking Sony bosses, who scaled the release back from a planned 2,000 US cinemas to just 880 days before the movie hit screens.
The film, which cost a reported $20m to make, opened with a disappointing $701,000 at the box office.
Following the release, Rita made a last-ditch attempt to turn the narrative around by posting positive reviews – from such respected outlets as Slug Mag, Blackguard Media Reviews and Letterboxd – with the words: “So happy everyone is loving it.”
She went on to add what appears to be her own gushing review, until she refers to herself as “a family man and father” to “my stepkids” – Taika’s two daughters – a slip that seems to revealing that he has written her praise.
She wrote: “This is the most heart-wrenching, warm, feel-good film.
“You can’t help but shed a tear, and you can’t help but fall in love at every moment.
“It’s about friendship, family dynamics, feeling like an outsider, and being grateful for what you have.
“As a family man and father of two incredible girls, my , this one hit home.
“Now more than ever, we need to be there for one another, to show up for the people we love, and to simply be kind.
“This film is a beautiful reminder of how much that matters.
“Please enjoy every second of this masterpiece, and I’m not just saying that because my husband is a genius.”
The movie went on to make a further $145m on its second weekend, before it was embarrassingly dropped this week.
And the blow will have felt even sharper for director Taika, after a series of setbacks.
2023 sports drama Next Goal Wins languished on the shelf for over a year before grossing $18 million worldwide against a reported budget of $14 million.
And upcoming 2027 – in which he stars as an actor – was this week overshadowed by in an abuse of his fame and influence.
The streaming service Stan, which was eventually expected to host the film on its platform after its cinema release, has since withdrawn from the deal, confirming it will no longer stream the movie.
Meanwhile wife Rita has been dealing with her own setbacks, after an initially amicable split from manager Sarah turned sour.
Legal documents filed by Sarah claim Rita violated the terms of her contract by failing to hand over a cut of her earnings from tours and TV work.
The biggest chunk of the alleged underpayments stands at just over £1.7million — with Sarah’s firm claiming there were “impermissible deductions” for professional services including advertising, accountancy and insurance.
But it doesn’t end there.
Rita is also alleged to have hidden more than £1.1million by “unreporting touring income” between spring 2019 and 2020 while on her Phoenix World Tour, which included seven UK arena shows and a night at ’s O2 Arena.
The documents claimed that commission payments to FAE “failed to take account of certain touring income which the defendant had received (or which was received on her behalf) during that period”.
Paperwork also suggests that up to £6million made from those gigs allegedly went missing from the statements.
The singer’s telly work is also under the microscope, with Sarah’s firm claiming Rita fibbed about her income while working as a judge on .
It says commission on series five of the hit ITV show was paid “on the basis of invoices which did not accurately reflect the sums to which the defendant was contractually entitled”.
Sarah, who also made household names of singers including Ellie Goulding and Jessie J, claims the “cover-up” left her business almost £25,000 out of pocket.
And as the row continues, Rita has undertaken a considerably lower profile.
Since in February 2024, she has been all but absent from TV screens – apart from a two episode cameo in Netflix’s Too Much and brief reprisals of her role as the Wicked Queen in Descendants: Wicked Wonderland and appearing in the Descendants/Zombies Worlds Collide: Concert Special.
She has instead been focusing on her music, teasing singles All Natural and Heat in the run up to her fourth studio release.
But while this is due for release in 2026, with one month to go, there has been no sign of it.
She will be hoping that the new record – when it finally appears – will be well received, so that she and husband Taika finally have some good news to celebrate.
