Wuthering Heights takes £56m over opening weekend – as Emerald Fennell’s film continues to divide critics

It may have divided critics with its anachronistic take on Emily Brontë’s gothic novel – but Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has surpassed expectations with a strong opening weekend at the global box office.

Starring Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, this new take on Wuthering Heights has polarised viewers and critics, thanks in part to its unfaithful take on the original material.

Opening on Friday (13 February), in time for Valentine’s Day, Wuthering Heights made £56 million at the global box office over the weekend. In the US, it took $34.8 million (£25.5 million), making it the biggest opening of the year so far.

While US takings were slightly lower than predicted, it has surpassed predictions internationally, despite still being yet to open in large markets including Japan, Vietnam and China.

And while Wuthering Heights’ bodice-ripper status has seen it largely marketed to female audiences, more men have seen the film in its opening weekend outside of the US. PostTrak research estimates that 76 per cent of international audiences were women.

The film’s box office success reflects an audience who have been more receptive to Fennell’s adaptation than critics. At the time of writing, Wuthering Heights has an audience rating of 80 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to an average of 61 per cent from critics, based on 244 reviews.

One of the lowest critical ratings came from The Independent's film critic Clarisse Loughrey, who called it “an astonishingly hollow work” in her one-star review.

“It uses the guise of interpretation to gut one of the most impassioned, emotionally violent novels ever written, and then toss its flayed skin over whatever romance tropes seem most marketable,” she wrote.

However, the film was well received by the BBC, who gave it four stars, and The Telegraph, who called it “resplendently lurid, oozy and wild” in a five-star review. “It’s an obsessive film about obsession, and hungrily embroils the viewer in its own mad compulsions,” wrote critic Robbie Collins.

One of the main points of criticism has been the ways in which Fennell’s Wuthering Heights – the title of which is stylised as “Wuthering Heights” – diverts from Brontë’s 1847 novel. These changes range from the costumes, which feature iridescent fabrics and latex, to the plot point where Heathcliff kills Isabella’s dog instead playing out as Isabella being chained up like a dog in a BDSM-inspired scene.

Like many previous adaptations, this new version primarily focuses on the first half of the novel, a decision that Fennell has defended. “I think that’s really the moment that draws to an end in the book,” she said.

“If you’re making a movie, and you’ve got to be fairly tight, you’ve got to make those kinds of hard decisions.”