My 2026 has been pretty awful, but there’s one thing that’s given me a lot of joy in recent days: everyone slamming Emerald Fennell and her bullsh-t adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The actual reviews of WH have been hilarious and the tweets and skeets from people who watched it opening weekend have been a joy to behold. People are really mad that Fennell screwed up a classic story and turned this tortured gothic novel into a cheesy vibes-only “romance.” Now, all that being said, all of the box-office prognosticators said that because of the studio’s marketing to the female audience, the film would end up being a pretty big hit overall. They were right. Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” got to #1 in North America and had a tidy opening weekend here and in Europe.
Emerald Fennell’s bold reimagining of “Wuthering Heights” brought crowds of women to movie theaters this weekend. The Warner Bros. release topped the box office charts and nabbed the title for the year’s biggest opening with $34.8 million in ticket sales in its first three days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
According to PostTrak polling, an estimated 76% of those ticket buyers were women. By the end of Monday’s Presidents Day holiday, the total could rise to $40 million from its 3,682 locations.
“Wuthering Heights” was also No. 1 at the global box office with $82 million, ranking as the top worldwide debut of the year.
Those ticket sales include a better-than-expected $42 million internationally from 76 territories as well as $40 million over the four-day domestic debut. (Rival studios believe the North American tally will be closer to $35 million through the President’s Day holiday on Monday.) Warner Bros. is backing the $80 million production. Directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, the bold and steamy remake of Emily Brontë’s classic novel follows a toxic relationship between star-crossed lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff in 18th century England.
Since reviews and word-of-mouth have been mixed and domestic ticket sales were slightly softer than expected, “Wuthering Heights” may rely on international audiences to offset its budget. (That’s because movie theater owners keep roughly half of theatrical revenues.) Top overseas markets were the United Kingdom with $10.3 million, Italy with $4.4 million and Australia with $4.3 million. Warner Bros. didn’t report any grosses from Asian territories, though the film has yet to open in two key markets, China and Japan.
It apparently cost around $80 million to make Wuthering Heights, so the worst thing that will happen is that the film completely breaks even. It’s far more likely that the film continues to have a successful theatrical run and that everyone makes money on this. So, this is a success for women directors, a success for Margot Robbie (she not only starred, but produced it through her LuckyChap shingle), and a success for anyone willing to make and market films for a primarily female audience. It can be all of those things and still be a terrible movie though! This honestly reminds me of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, where the films were unquestionably major successes, the audiences were primarily horny women, and afterwards, the actual film industry simply ignored that market and FSOG’s success and acted like it was all a one-off which would never be duplicated. I think the real lesson here should be: women are willing to go to the actual movie theater if they’re given a fun, dumb, sexy option which is marketed directly to them. They said that about The Housemaid’s recent box office success too – that women just want a fun, dumb option, something they can see with their girlfriends.
Photos courtesy of “Wuthering Heights” and Backgrid, Cover Images.
