Movie starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie is pointing to a $50 million-plus US opening
Wuthering Heights is already proving to be a powerful Valentine’s Day draw, launching its theatrical run with a formidable $3 million in Thursday preview screenings because it heads into the vacation weekend.
The romantic drama, directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is anticipated to dominate the body, with early projections pointing to a $50 million-plus home opening. The robust preview turnout indicators that audiences are turning out in power for the movie’s sweeping love story, completely timed for the February 14 hall.
Business analysts say the movie’s early numbers mirror each robust pre-release buzz and strategic counterprogramming, because it positions itself because the go-to selection for {couples} and romance followers over the Valentine’s Day weekend.
Following behind are two extensive releases aiming to seize completely different segments of the viewers. The animated sports activities comedy GOAT, produced by Stephen Curry, is concentrating on households and youthful viewers, whereas Amazon MGM’s crime thriller Crime 101, starring Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo, is anticipated to enchantment to grownup audiences in search of a darker various.
Each movies are monitoring within the mid-tier vary in comparison with Wuthering Heights, which is extensively anticipated to carry the No. 1 spot all through the vacation body.
All three titles opened February 13, creating a various lineup that spans romance, animation and crime drama. However with its early $3 million preview haul and Valentine’s Day enchantment, Wuthering Heights is poised to guide the weekend field workplace and set the tone for one of many first main moviegoing frames of 2026.
In July 2024, filmmaker Emerald Fennell introduced that she would write and direct an adaptation of the 1847 novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. In September 2024, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have been solid as Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, respectively, with Robbie additionally producing underneath her label LuckyChap Leisure alongside financer MRC. Robbie beforehand produced Fennell’s Promising Younger Lady (2020) and Saltburn (2023), the latter of which starred Elordi.
A bidding conflict in October led Netflix to bid $150 million for the distribution rights. Warner Bros. Footage, with whom LuckyChap has a first-look deal and made Barbie (2023), finally received the rights with a considerably decrease provide of $80 million after granting Fennell and Robbie’s needs for the movie to have a theatrical launch and a major advertising and marketing marketing campaign.
Elordi had been considering taking a hiatus from appearing earlier than Fennell provided him the lead position with out having to audition. The choice to solid a white actor because the racially ambiguous Heathcliff, described as resembling a “dark-skinned gipsy” or “Lascar” within the novel, sparked controversy. In November 2024, Hong Chau, Alison Oliver (who starred in Saltburn), and Shazad Latif joined the solid. In March 2025, Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, and Vy Nguyen (all three making their movie debuts) have been introduced as taking part in younger Catherine, Heathcliff, and Nelly. In September 2025, Fennell defended her resolution to solid Elordi, stating that he “appeared precisely just like the illustration of Heathcliff on the primary guide that I learn.”
Principal pictures occurred in the UK from late January to early April 2025, utilizing 35mm VistaVision cameras. Filming occurred at Sky Studios Elstree, with location capturing within the Yorkshire Dales together with the valleys of Arkengarthdale and Swaledale, the village of Low Row, and the Yorkshire Dales Nationwide Park.
