Despite a divisive reception, Wuthering Heights has dominated the global box office and is expected to earn back its budget after a $108 million (AUD) opening weekend haul.
While the box office results are somewhat lower than initial projections, the Emily Brontë adaptation is still on track to recoup its estimated budget of $113 million (AUD) as it eyes additional premieres in Japan and China.
The budget recoup does not include the millions spent on marketing, promotion and the at-times bizarre press tour. But its global earnings — including an impressive $6.07 million (AUD) opening in Australia — still made it the number one movie last week globally.
That’s either welcome or sad news, depending on your thoughts on Emerald Fennell’s take on the literary classic.
The movie garnered controversy before it even debuted, including for casting of 35-year-old Margot Robbie as the teenaged Catherine and Jacob Elordi as the dark-skinned Heathcliff.
Fennell explained away some of the movie’s most egregious diversions from the original book by tacking on some inverted commas around the title, but the film was still well-received by some.
Somewhat shockingly, some of that praise came from staff at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in West Yorkshire, who said over the weekend that they “loved it” and “thought it was amazing”.
Meanwhile, Dr Claire O’Callaghan, who wrote the most recent Brontë biography, also said she “enjoyed” the movie despite it having no “fidelity to the original”.
In our own four-star review, PEDESTRIAN.TV commended the stars’ “emotionally charged performances” and costuming that “elevate[s] the film into a complete work of art”.
Alongside Wuthering Heights, Fennell has also directed 2020’s Promising Young Woman and 2023’s Saltburn, both of which were also controversial in their own right.
No word yet on where Fennell will go next, but expect her next project to arrive on a wave of horniness and scandal.
Lead images: Warner Bros. Pictures
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