• ]Emerald Fennell's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" opened to $83 million globally over Valentine's Day weekend despite mixed reviews and multiple casting controversies
• Literary scholars and longtime Brontë readers argue the film's marketing as a steamy romance contradicts the novel's themes of class, racial identity and generational trauma
• The film's B CinemaScore and 62% Rotten Tomatoes rating suggest audiences drawn by the Valentine's Day pitch found something different than expected

LOS ANGELES, CA (TDR) — Emerald Fennell's adaptation of "Wuthering Heights" opened to $83 million worldwide over the Presidents' Day holiday weekend, claiming the No. 1 spot at the global box office. The R-rated film starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi earned $38 million domestically and $45 million internationally — making it Fennell's biggest opening and the largest female-led romance debut in the post-COVID era. But beneath the impressive numbers lies a contradiction that literary scholars, critics and BookTok readers have been flagging for months: Warner Bros. marketed a steamy Valentine's Day romance out of source material that Emily Brontë never intended as a love story.

Marketing "The Greatest Love Story" That Wasn't One

The film's promotional campaign leaned heavily into desire. Trailers featured the text "The Greatest Love Story of All Time" over a Charli XCX soundtrack of synth-pop and moody electro beats. The Valentine's Day release date was no accident — Warner Bros. spent roughly $100 million on global marketing that included a talent press tour through Paris, London and Australia. The pitch worked. Women represented more than 75% of opening weekend audiences, drawn by the promise of period-drama passion between two of Hollywood's most photogenic stars.

The problem, according to Brontë scholars, is that the 1847 novel functions as an anti-romance. Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship is built on obsession, manipulation and mutual destruction — not the swooning love affair that posters and trailers suggested.

"Don't expect a love story." — Rachel Florine, BookTok creator who read the novel ahead of the film's release

That disconnect registered with audiences. The film earned a B grade on CinemaScore exit polls — a mediocre score for a major release — with only 51% of viewers giving it a "definite recommend" on PostTrak. Deadline reported that one reason for the softer domestic performance was that the film was "actually tamer in its naughtiness than marketed" — audiences expecting a period-drama Fifty Shades of Grey found something more subdued.

Fennell's Quotation Marks Defense

Fennell appeared to anticipate the backlash by literally putting quotation marks around the film's title — a signal, she said, that this was her personal interpretation rather than a faithful adaptation.

"You can't adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book. I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights. It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it." — Emerald Fennell, director

"Everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it, and so you can only ever kind of make the movie that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it." — Fennell, at the film's Los Angeles premiere

Critics were divided on whether that framing justified the creative liberties. NPR's review noted that the film could be the most reductive version of the material ever produced, though the reviewer acknowledged never being bored. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus at 62% landed on a telling summary: the adaptation features "a heavy dose of carnality and chic stylization" that "might not be the stuff of high literature but it is a visually vibrant pleasure." Metacritic scored it 56 out of 100 — firmly in "mixed or average" territory.

"The eroticism quickly wears off, and the film doesn't know what to do without it." — Shakefire review

The Casting Contradictions

The whitewashing controversy added another layer to the marketing-versus-source tension. Brontë repeatedly described Heathcliff with racially coded language — "a dark-skinned gipsy," a "little Lascar," a boy speaking "some gibberish that nobody could understand" — found on the streets of Liverpool, which was Britain's preeminent slave-trading port at the time the novel is set.

"To be a part of that is special. This is Emerald's interpretation of the text, and Emerald is an artist that I respect and admire." — Jacob Elordi, responding to casting criticism

Andrea Kaston Tange, a professor of Victorian literature, argued that casting Elordi was a missed opportunity because his appearance would allow him to pass seamlessly into the upper-middle class — the exact opposite of Heathcliff's function in the novel as a permanent outsider. Only Andrea Arnold's 2011 adaptation cast a multiracial actor, James Howson, in the role.

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Robbie's casting raised separate questions. Catherine marries at 17 in the novel. Robbie is 35. One Rebellious Magazine critic compared the age gap to Stockard Channing playing a high schooler in Grease. Yet defenders argued Robbie's performance channeled the same entitled energy she brought to Barbie — a deliberate choice that served Fennell's interpretation of Catherine as a woman living inside a dollhouse of her own construction.

Box Office Context: Winners And Losers

Valentine's Day weekend featured sharp contrasts beyond "Wuthering Heights." Sony Animation's GOAT — produced by NBA champion Steph Curry — debuted to $35 million domestically with an A CinemaScore, suggesting stronger audience satisfaction on a smaller budget. Amazon MGM's Crime 101 starring Chris Hemsworth stumbled to $16.4 million against a $90 million production cost, despite Amazon outspending rivals with $21.6 million in TV advertising compared to Warner Bros.' $5.4 million for "Wuthering Heights."

The UK was "Wuthering Heights'" strongest international market at $10.3 million — outperforming the first Downton Abbey film — and European audiences skewed more gender-balanced than their American counterparts. Warner Bros. needs roughly $330 million worldwide for the film to break even on its combined $80 million production budget and approximately $100 million in promotional spending.

What Brontë Actually Wrote

The deeper irony is that Fennell's film omitted the novel's entire second half, which follows the next generation of Earnshaws and Lintons breaking the cycle of abuse their parents created. That resolution — where generational trauma is arguably the novel's central theme — offers the hopefulness that Brontë embedded beneath the darkness. Without it, the film becomes what multiple critics described as all surface and no substance.

"Fennell used the title for promotion, and to reach a bigger audience than she would have if she just released this movie as her own spicy and fun star-crossed lovers story. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and overall feels disrespectful." — Rachel Florine, Brontë reader and BookTok creator

"It often feels like we're watching a motion picture incarnation of the smutty scratchings doodled in the margins of a science textbook by a bored middle-schooler." — Rotten Tomatoes critic review

Yet some voices pushed back against the purist backlash. A Stylist review from a self-described English literature graduate who expected to hate the film argued that the essence of the novel — yearning, the hollow superficiality of love, toxic game-playing across the class divide — was actually "heightened to an excruciating degree." And Refinery29's review made a provocative case that Fennell's white Heathcliff was actually preferable to watching a rich white woman direct a twisted romance featuring a Black or Brown man.

With $83 million in its opening frame and a break-even target north of $330 million, does "Wuthering Heights" prove that brand recognition can override critical consensus — or will the gap between marketing and material catch up at the box office?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from Variety's box office reporting, Deadline's opening weekend analysis, The Hollywood Reporter's box office coverage, NPR's film review, Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus, Screen Rant's casting analysis, Slate's examination of Heathcliff's race, CBR's adaptation analysis, Stylist's review, Refinery29's commentary on the whitewashing debate, Deadline's soundtrack coverage, and Rebellious Magazine's casting analysis.

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