Emerald Fennell’s film should hit $200m by the middle of this week

Screen Daily shares the latest box office figures for Wuthering Heights 2026:

Warner Bros and MRC’s Wuthering Heights added an estimated $22.6m globally in its third weekend session, taking the total so far to $192.0m – $72.3m in North America and a strong $119.7m across 78 international markets. Emerald Fennell’s film should hit $200m by the middle of this week.

Among international markets, UK/Ireland – home to the film’s Yorkshire setting – remains far out in front with $28.3m so far, ahead of Italy, surprisingly strong with $11.5m. Next comes Australia ($11.1m), which is home to the film’s lead actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Mexico ($8.0m), Germany ($6.5m) and Spain ($6.4m) all rank ahead of France ($4.5m), which is just ahead of Poland ($4.3m). (Charles Gant)

Now for some reviews of the film:

An A from The Tidewater News:

It’s fair to criticize the film for its straying from the source material and rejecting many of the themes that book readers respect about Bronte’s masterpiece. Admittedly, 'Wuthering Heights' isn’t a sacred text to me, so I was not as bothered by such a large change. Especially because going into the film, I knew it was going to be different. Fennell was clear from early on that this adaptation of the story was going to diverge substantially from the source material; this is why the title intentionally has quotations. Instead of focusing on the changes, I enjoyed the movie for what it was, a visually striking, toxic romance. I just want to clearly caution that those expecting a strict book adaptation need to know what they are going into and prepare accordingly.

I knew I was going to like “'Wuthering Heights',” but I didn’t know just how much I was going to love it. More than anything, the film (and its press tour) started to slightly conjure feelings from my TITANIC-obsessed adolescence, where I watched the film over and over in theaters and devoured anything the actors did to promote the film. Will I watch this film as many times as I did TITANIC? No, but I will definitely be seeing it again in theaters… and I implore you to see it in theaters as well. The brilliant score, gorgeous cinematography, and Elordi and Robbie’s beautiful faces should be enjoyed on the loudest, crispest screen you can find. (Lauren Bradshaw)

The Greyhound:

While the adaptation did not capture every layer of Brontë’s storytelling, it introduced the characters and their tragic dynamic in a way that makes the viewers want to understand them more deeply. 

“The movie definitely made me want to read the book. I got a copy immediately after I saw the movie, ” [Natalia Romero, a senior English major at George Mason University] said. 

Ultimately, ‘Wuthering Heights’ delivers a visually stunning and stylistically adaptation of a beloved literary classic. The production design, soundtrack, and cast make the film appeal to a modern audience. However, the film struggles to fully translate the emotional depth and complexity of the characters that make the novel so powerful. For many, the movie may serve as an introduction rather than a fully fleshed out story that may leave viewers wanting more. (Emily Gott)

The Nation:

Perhaps it’s facile to say that this backwards-yearning attitude is also very of-the-moment, but it is. Fennell has demonstrated a real knack for diagnosing the times. Her previous films, 2017’s pop feminist black comedy Promising Young Woman and the aforementioned trendy, have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too excesses of Saltburn, allowed her to masquerade as a political satirist. But maybe more than diagnoses, what drew us to these films was that they relayed the cultural background noise all around them back to their audience. Lulled by genuinely compelling visuals and excellent performances into the sense that those previous films had more to say than they did, we came to view Fennell’s films as wanting to offer more biting critique than they actually did. But “Wuthering Heights” has no such pretentions. Fennell ignores the novel’s very real and present concerns with class, race, and heredity because that is what she thinks her moment is asking of her. This film may not be Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, but it certainly feels like something. The title—with its quotation marks—perhaps says it all—this, unlike other notably outlandish but intriguing adaptations, keeps its distance from the original text. It is not Baz Lurhman’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or even Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This is, unmistakably, Emerald Fennell’s very own “Wuthering Heights.” (Sarah Chihaya)

The Mass Media:

On its own, the film might stand as a moody and visually arresting gothic romance. Its heightened emotions, bold costume choices and stylized performances suggest a director with a clear aesthetic vision. But attaching the name “Wuthering Heights” invites comparison to one of the most layered and politically charged novels in the English language. With that title comes an expectation of thematic depth and fidelity to the novel’s core tensions. Had the film been released under a different name, it might have been received as a creative original screenplay rather than a diminished adaptation weighed down by what it chooses to leave behind.

Ultimately, this adaptation raises a larger question about what we owe to classic texts when we revisit them. Reimagining canons is not the problem. In many ways, it keeps literature alive, but reinterpretation requires careful intention. When a story as culturally and politically loaded as “Wuthering Heights” is softened into aesthetic tragedy, something essential is lost. What remains is a film that is easy to watch, understand and market, but far more difficult to defend as a meaningful engagement with the novel it claims to honor. (Abigail Fontz)

The Valley Vanguard:

If you come for bold stylistic choices, heightened sensuality, and electrifying lead chemistry, this Wuthering Heights offers a lot to savor. Viewers attracted to camp, costume spectacle, and a modern, provocative spin on a classic may find the film entertaining.

On the other hand, if you hoped for a careful, historically attentive reassessment of race, class, and colonial context in Brontë’s novel, this version will likely feel insubstantial. The movie gestures at race by casting diversely in places, but it rarely commits to exploring the implications of those choices.

Fennell’s adaptation makes clear that remaking canonical texts is always an act of interpretation — and that interpretation carries ethical weight. Who gets to retell a classic? Which elements are preserved, and which are reshaped to fit a director’s fantasies? When race and power are involved, those choices aren’t merely aesthetic.

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights challenges viewers to decide whether they’ll accept a visually bold, thematically narrow reimagining — or whether they’ll instead demand adaptations that both dazzle and engage with the hard questions of history and representation. (David Miller)

The Duke Chronicle:

While I enjoyed the performances of each individual actor, together the film felt very shallow and superficial. Seeing Catherine and Heathcliff make out was just like seeing Margot Robby and Jacob Elordi make out. I was not able to see the actors transform into their characters. I think part of that is due to the fact that the role of Heatchliff was not auditioned for, but simply handed to Jacob Elordi. Many of the roles in the film were given to actors that Fennell had previously worked with in “Saltburn.” If I had not read the book, I am sure I would have had a very different viewing experience. Honestly, if this movie was not connected to Brontë’s "Wuthering Heights," it would have been much better. But, any film following the legacy of Brontë’s twisted novel has a responsibility to uphold its beauty. (Mallika Vairavan)

The Business Standard:

The movie proves to be visually sumptuous and highlights Fenell's technical savvy. Other than that, with choppy storytelling, characters shuffling through ambiguity and absurdity, this film exists to infuriate everyone who grew up admiring Brontë's work. (Adiba Khondokar)

The Courier gives it a 1.5/5:

The film is thematically empty, and any resemblance to thoughtful messaging likely stems from Brontë’s original novel. As even these thought-provoking themes on social dynamics and obsession contradict themselves with Fennell’s desire for a yearning, romantic narrative. Avoiding spoilers, the ending of this film is so far detached from any sense of these themes that I was only left baffled and alienated. 

But had Fennell’s creativity served any actual purpose, these seemingly tasteless elements would have synced to deliver a daring, biting vision instead of an offensive, cruel perversion. Although I adored the film’s camp reimagining, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is a shockingly alienating, nihilistic experience. Even as an enjoyer of trash cinema, this movie left too sour of a taste on my tongue for me to enjoy it. My sympathy goes out to anyone who believed this film would have been a good first date movie for Valentine’s Day. Hopefully, your date gave you another chance after that. (Ryley Salazar)

The Daily Emerald reviews Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album:

“Wuthering Heights” is in a whole different realm than “BRAT,” and yet, her iconic electronic vocals are instantly recognizable as she portrays this story through music. Without losing her sound as an artist, Charli successfully proved her worth as a versatile songwriter and musician. (Everette Cogswell)

Riotus thinks that the 1988 Japanese film Arashi ga oka 'Gets Wuthering Heights Right'.

After the dust-up surrounding “Wuthering Heights” by Emerald Fennel, I was made aware of a Japanese version from 1988, (Japanese: 嵐が丘, Hepburn: Arashi ga oka), directed by Yoshishige Yoshida, and starring Yusako Matsuda, and Yuko Tanaka. Consequently, we now have a version of Wuthering Heights that takes place on the smoky plains of a volcanic mountain instead of the moors of England. And the tension is between the divided house of the ruling clan of the area. [...]

Heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, what we see is an intersection of class, sex, violence, and even obsession. Hewing much closer to the text of Brontë’s original book—instead of a windswept, doomed romance —it’s a deeply gothic, disturbingly violent, dark tragedy. [...]

If you’re looking for a much more accurate representation of Brontë’s work, this production is most definitely the best direction to go in. (Kwesi Kennedy)

A contributor to Her Campus discusses the 'Wuthering Heights Costuming and Why it’s not Historically Accurate (but on purpose)'. GB News is a bit late to the party and only now catches up on the Wuthering Heights divide among critics.

Artnet features the Pillar portrait and its history. Strike Magazine has an article on Victorian hair jewellery. A recent reel on the New York Public Library Instagram account showed Emerald Fennell viewing some Brontë items from their collection.