Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell’s divisive adaptation of Emily Brontë’s tale of doomed love, has soared to the top of the UK box office, taking £7.7m over its opening weekend. This represents a significant overperformance compared to North America, where it took around $38m (UK box office usually amounts to around 10-15% of US haul).
The home advantage might help account for some of the fervour around the film, which was shot by a British woman in the Yorkshire Dales, and the supporting cast of which also largely hails from the UK. Lukewarm reviews would likely not have dented box office significantly given strong pre-sales and a baked-in appetite over Valentine’s weekend.
The film was released wide, across 761 sites, to a £10,030 average. Its weekend take in the UK already surpasses the £5.6m total domestic box office of Fennell’s previous film, Saltburn (although this was also a significant streaming hit); as well as last year’s hyped romantic drama Materialists, which took £3.9m in the UK.
For comparison, Hamnet took £3m on its opening weekend in the UK and is currently on £16.4m, while The Housemaid started on £4.4m and is now on £29m. All four titles are aimed at a female demographic.
However, Wuthering Heights’ haul falls below the £11.8m made by Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which opened theatrically in the UK over Valentine’s weekend last year. That film finished its UK run with £46m; it went straight to streaming in the US.
Warner Bros will be braced for a significant second week dropoff for the film, as the majority of pre-release bookings coincided with Valentine’s weekend. In the US, word of mouth is less strong than the studio might have hoped, and only 51% of the opening-weekend audience said that they would “definitely recommend” the film to friends.
Moviegoers also gave it a B grade on CinemaScore, which polls audience members as they exit the cinema.
The second and third place holders at the UK box office also mirrored those in the UK, with family sports animation GOAT taking £2.2m and acclaimed drama Crime 101 £1.4m.