Emerald Fennell's divisive adaptation of "Wuthering Heights," stars Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie. ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection “Wuthering Heights” has been called every name under the sun, for better or for worse: “gleefully watchable,” “proudly stupid,” “decadent,” “soaked in yearning,” and, my personal favorite, “smooth-brained.”
Director Emerald Fennell, whose previous films include “Promising Young Woman” and “Saltburn,” is no stranger to incessant discourse around her projects. In fact, she’s built a career off it — and it’s precisely why she was the right woman to take on the source material.
Emily Brontë scandalized the English in 1847 with her novel’s harrowing depictions of domestic abuse, animal cruelty, and two love interests who are, to put it bluntly, repugnant. Similarly, Fennell is a master provocateur operating at the highest level, delivering her third consecutive lightning rod for controversy. And it’s largely paid off — depending on who you ask.
For a film that’s divided critics so greatly (it’s got a middling 60% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes), it’s only fair that box office analysts similarly had their work cut out for them after its opening weekend.
While Warner Bros.’ “Wuthering Heights” came in under projections domestically with $38 million, it soared overseas with a better-than-expected haul that brought it to an $83 million worldwide gross over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend (which also coincided with Valentine’s Day). By comparison, “Saltburn” made a lot of noise — but brought in a modest $21.3 million worldwide for Amazon MGM.
So how should we appraise the performance of this $80M-budgeted film?
“The best way to contextualize early returns is that the tracking narrative went from expecting something resembling the “Fifty Shades of Grey” sequels to more of a large-scale A24 film,” says Fandango’s director of analytics and Box Office Theory founder and owner Shawn Robbins.
With anachronistic costumes, BDSM-infused marketing and an electropop soundtrack from Charli XCX, “Wuthering Heights” isn’t a studio tentpole — it’s an audacious arthouse film that’s been thrust upon a wide audience, baiting them to react.
“With a release strategy that was specifically built around the moviegoing surge a double holiday and date-night weekend can generate, there’s a widely accepted inevitability for a front-loaded box office run in this case,” Robbins says. But with a light slate of competition in the coming weeks, Fennell’s most shocking act may be pulling off another big haul this weekend.
