135 minutes of Wuthering Heights

World of Reel has some updates concerning Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights:

We’re still a month away from Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” which opens on Valentine’s Day, but there are a few updates concerning this latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel.

Firstly, the film is officially in the can — yesterday, it earned an “R” rating from the MPA for “sexual content.” Not shocking. Test screenings had mentioned the notable amount of hyper-sexualized imagery — far more explicit than any previous adaptation of this material.

Furthermore, the film runs at around 135 minutes. Just to compare, Andrea Arnold’s 2011 take on the novel ran for 129 minutes. There’s a lot of material to cover in the book, so this checks out as well. Although, by all accounts, Fennell will be taking her fair share of liberties with the story.

Finally, tracking is all over the place on this one. The “official” numbers tell us it’ll open in the $20–25M range, while the reliable EmpireCity Box Office predicts a “smash hit” for Warner Bros in the $50M range. It’s anybody’s guess at this point. (Jordan Ruimy)

Metro recommends some 'Gripping books to read before they become film adaptations in 2026', including

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë’s revered 1847 gothic novel takes somewhat of an erotic turn in Emerald Fennell’s controversial adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

It’s the most fervently discussed movie of 2026 after fans were stirred up first by director Emerald Fennell casting Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles, and then by the decidedly raunchy first trailer for Wuthering Heights.

The trailer was met with shock and labelled ‘aggressively provocative’ by initial audiences, only adding to the anticipation for some.

The film focuses on a love story betwee

n Cathy Earnshaw and her adopted brother Heathcliff. The story takes place across decades in the Yorkshire moors and explores family ties, mortality, class, and agonising, destructive love. (Laura Harman)

The same on Stylist:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Director Emerald Fennell’s much-anticipated take on Emily Brontë’s powerful tale of love, violence and obsession comes to the big screen this February. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi take the roles of star-crossed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff, while Charlie xcx has written a companion album of original songs for the film. From the look of the trailer, the film appears to be loosely inspired by its original source material, but we still think it’s worth a dive (or another dive) into Brontë’s 1847 novel ahead of the film’s release, if only to whet your appetite for what promises to be a daring take on the classic. (Georgia Green)

NME lists the '20 unmissable movies to look forward to in 2026' including

‘Wuthering Heights’

Release date: February 11

Starring: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi

This is not just an Emily Brontë adaptation; it’s an Emily Brontë adaptation from Emerald Fennell, the disruptive director of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman. She’s described it as a “primal, sexual” take on Brontë’s Gothic romance and hired Charli XCX to write the soundtrack. Buttons will be pushed and pearls will be clutched.

In The Observer, Caroline Crampton writes 'A love letter to romance fiction'.

The longer you try on definitions, the more impossible it seems that anything will fit. A good case can be made that Jane Eyre, an acknowledged classic of English literature from the mid-19th century, is a romance novel. So is Unhinged by Vera Valentine, a 2023 novella about a woman who falls in love with her front door. As a genre, romance is simply too prolific, too diverse, too fluid to be pinned down.