Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ Aims For A $70M Gothic Breakout
‘Wuthering Heights’ Box Office Preview: Can Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie Turn Gothic Melodrama Into a $70M Hit?
The 2026 box office is finally shaking off its winter chill as Warner Bros.’ new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, fronted by Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, eyes a seductive $70M+ opening weekend. In a frame crowded with three major studio releases targeting women, families, and guys over 25, this stylish, prestige-leaning romantic thriller is shaping up to be the tallest figure on the marquee—and a bellwether for whether adult-skewing literary adaptations can still open like event movies.
With Deadline reporting strong pre-release tracking and a heavy push from Warner Bros., the latest spin on Emily Brontë’s windswept classic is arriving at a culturally interesting moment: audiences are craving romance with teeth, streamers have trained viewers to expect period drama at home, and TikTok has quietly turned 19th-century angst into a surprisingly bankable aesthetic.
A Gothic Classic Reborn for a Crowded 2026 Box Office Weekend
Deadline frames this as the first truly “big” weekend of the 2026 box office, anchored by three wide releases: a female-skewing romantic drama (Wuthering Heights), a family-targeted title, and a guy-centric film hoping to lure men over 25. It’s the kind of old-school, four-quadrant scheduling studios used to rely on: counter-programming instead of trying to win every demo at once.
What’s striking is that the buzziest of the bunch isn’t a superhero reboot or a video game adaptation, but a 19th-century tragic romance that high school English classrooms have been assigning for decades. That’s partly star power and partly timing: in the wake of recent success stories like Challengers and Saltburn, studios are realizing that “messy, stylish, adult romance” might actually be a viable theatrical lane again.
Emily Brontë’s novel has been adapted for screen and stage multiple times—from the Laurence Olivier film to the moody 2011 Andrea Arnold version—but Warner Bros. is clearly playing in a different sandbox: this is being sold less as homework and more as a grand, seductive studio epic, somewhere between classic melodrama and modern psychological thriller.
Star Power and “Hot Sad People”: Why Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie Matter
The Deadline preview emphasizes what every distributor knows: Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie aren’t just actors right now, they’re brands. Elordi has quickly become Hollywood’s go-to for “beautifully damaged men” after Euphoria, Priscilla, and Saltburn, while Robbie has graduated from breakout star to bona fide producer–multi-hyphenate off the back of Barbie and her LuckyChap banner.
“Elordi has that rare mix of matinee-idol looks and genuine menace that makes Heathcliff feel dangerous again, not just brooding.” — early critic reaction summarized in industry chatter
Casting them together is savvy. The marketing practically writes itself: two of the most talked-about faces in Hollywood thrown into one of literature’s most toxic entanglements. For younger audiences who know the text more from Tumblr quotes and dark academia TikToks than from the novel itself, it’s less “heritage cinema” and more “premium fan-cast finally made real.”
- For women under 30: Elordi’s rising heartthrob status is a major draw, especially framed as morally ambiguous, not just broody.
- For women 30+ and lit fans: Robbie offers both prestige credibility and mainstream appeal.
- For couples: The film promises old-school, big-screen romance with enough edge to feel modern.
Chasing $70M+: What the Opening Weekend Projections Really Signal
Deadline’s headline-grabbing figure—$70M+ projected for opening weekend—puts Wuthering Heights in a tier usually reserved for superhero installments, horror overperformers, or beloved IP sequels. For a dark, tragic romance, that’s genuinely ambitious.
- Appetite for adult drama: If the film hits or exceeds $70M, it strengthens the argument that adults will still show up theatrically when a movie feels like an event.
- Value of non-franchise IP: A strong opening suggests literary adaptations can be re-framed as brands, not just curricular obligations.
- Star-driven marketing: Success here will reinforce the idea that certain performers can still open a movie on name and image alone.
That said, projections are not guarantees. Weather, reviews, and simple vibes can swing a weekend by tens of millions. A $60M opening would still be strong; a $50M start would be more “respectable” than game-changing. The industry will be reading not just the raw number but the multiplier: does the film have the legs to play as counter-programming for weeks, or does it burn bright and fast with the core fandom?
Three-Quadrant Chess: How Counter-Programming Could Help (or Hurt)
Deadline notes that this isn’t a solo weekend for Wuthering Heights. The other two major releases—one aimed at families, another at men over 25—mean the box office is playing a familiar game of demo-splitting chess. On paper, that’s ideal for Warner Bros.: let the family film soak up matinees and the guy’s picture appeal to genre fans, while Wuthering targets women and date-night crowds.
The risk? Heavy overlap with the family title for parents seeking something a bit more grown-up, and with the 25+ male film if that one skews prestige or thriller. But in an era of streaming fatigue, there’s a quiet advantage here: three distinctly marketed theatrical options make “going to the movies” feel like a cultural activity again, not just a default superhero slot.
Style, Tone, and TikTok Gothic: What Makes This Adaptation Click Culturally
While Deadline’s focus is box office, the creative choices loom large in how those numbers materialize. Every modern Wuthering Heights adaptation has to answer the same question: are we leaning into classical fidelity or contemporary fever dream?
From the stills and promotional materials so far, Warner Bros. seems to be threading the needle: windswept moors, candlelit interiors, and disheveled tailoring signal period authenticity, while the camera language and costuming push into almost music-video sensuality. It’s Brontë by way of fragrance commercial, which is exactly where the culture is right now.
“People underestimate how contemporary Brontë feels. The possessiveness, the obsession, the self-destruction— it’s all there in the way we talk about toxic relationships online.” — a recent critic’s take on modernizing the novel
That’s the cultural sweet spot: selling Wuthering Heights not as homework, but as the original toxic love story, the blueprint for every “problematic fave” discourse thread Twitter and TikTok have cycled through over the past decade. If the film embraces that without sanitizing it, word-of-mouth could be potent.
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Early Concerns
Based on the Deadline preview and pre-release buzz, several strengths and potential weak spots are already clear.
Likely Strengths
- Star pairing: Elordi and Robbie give the film instant visibility across age brackets and social platforms.
- Visual identity: The marketing leans into striking, high-contrast imagery that plays well on timelines and thumbnails.
- Counter-programming appeal: A romantic, adult-leaning tragedy stands out in a marketplace often dominated by sequels.
Possible Weaknesses
- Inherent bleakness: Wuthering Heights is famously uncompromising; some audiences expecting Pride and Prejudice-style swoon may be taken aback by the cruelty.
- Runtime & pacing: If the film tracks too closely to the dense source material, it risks feeling heavy for casual viewers looking for escapism.
- Competition for attention: In a streaming-saturated era, convincing viewers to see a known-downer ending in theaters instead of waiting at home is a real hurdle.
What a Win (or Miss) Means for Hollywood’s Romance Playbook
The Deadline preview isn’t just about tracking numbers; it’s also a temperature check on Hollywood’s willingness to bet big on romantic dramas in theaters again. If Wuthering Heights lands its $70M+ opening—or even gets close—expect:
- More high-gloss adaptations of “canon” novels, especially those with built-in toxic romance appeal.
- Studios to position star-led dramas as events again, not just awards-season curios.
- Streamers and theatrical distributors to negotiate more strategically over who gets the next big literary IP.
If it underperforms, though, the narrative will flip quickly: “See? Adult dramas are for streaming.” That’s an oversimplification, but the industry loves clean stories, even when the reality is more complicated (release date, marketing, competition, and word-of-mouth all matter).
Trailer, Atmosphere, and the Art of Selling Tragedy
The official trailer leans into atmospheric tension: quick cuts between storm-lashed exteriors and intimate close-ups, sound design that swells from whispers to thunder, and a score that nods to classical strings while feeling distinctly contemporary. It’s calibrated to tell audiences, “Yes, this is period, but no, it’s not dusty.”
Selling tragedy is always a delicate dance: you want audiences to feel the stakes without making the experience seem punishing. The campaign walks that line by emphasizing the intensity of the romance and the “you have to see this with a crowd” quality of its more operatic moments.
Where to Learn More: Official Sources and Further Reading
For up-to-date box office numbers, credits, and critical response to the 2026 Wuthering Heights:
Final Thoughts: A Windy Weekend With High Stakes
As Deadline’s preview makes clear, Wuthering Heights isn’t just another adaptation—it’s a referendum on whether lush, thorny romantic dramas can still open big in theaters. A $70M+ debut would send a clear message that there’s room between superheroes and horror for star-powered, emotionally intense storytelling on the big screen.
However the numbers shake out, the film is already an interesting cultural artifact: a 19th-century novel reborn for a generation that talks about “toxic relationships” in memes and threads. And if nothing else, it proves that the moors—and the messy people who haunt them—still have the power to seduce audiences nearly two centuries later.
