The movie is the second big-screen adaptation of the classic 1811 Jane Austen book, after the 1995 film by Ang Lee. Directed by Georgia Oakley from a screenplay by Diana Reid, the 2026 version stars Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People, Twisters) as Elinor Dashwood, Esmé Creed-Miles (Prime Video's Hanna) as Marianne Dashwood, Caitríona Balfe (Outlander) as Mrs. Dashwood, George MacKay (1917) as Edward Ferrars, Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) as John Willoughby, and Herbert Nordrum (The Worst Person in the World) as Colonel Brandon.
Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Sense and Sensibility is projected to earn a 3-day total of $6.7 million at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. While this is only enough for it to debut at No. 5 on the domestic chart behind fellow new releases Whalefall ($7.5 million), You Can See Everything ($12-$14 million), and Street Fighter ($31 million) as well as the sophomore weekend of Other Mommy ($7.8 million), this marks the best domestic debut in history for a period-set Jane Austen movie (not adjusted for inflation).
The previous record-holder was 2016's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which debuted with $5.3 million. That was technically based on the Seth Grahame-Smith parody novel of the same name, which uses a great deal of the original Austen text. The previous record-holder for a straight Austen adaptation was 2005's Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, which earned $2.8 million.
While the new Sense and Sensibility movie has benefitted from the fact that many Jane Austen movies debut in limited release and thus have relatively low debuts ahead of their wide expansions, the only movie that beat its $6.7 million domestic gross during any weekend of its wide expansion was 2005's Pride and Prejudice, which earned a 3-day gross $7.1 million over that year's Thanksgiving weekend, just barely surpassing the 2026 movie's debut in spite of getting a boost from the holiday.
Below, see a breakdown of the box office performance of the previous period-set Jane Austen movies to play in domestic theaters (while 1940's Pride and Prejudice, which starred Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, does not have an official opening weekend gross on the record and is thus not on the table, it only made $1.8 million at the box office in total):
Title
Domestic Debut
Biggest Weekend
Worldwide Box Office
|
Emma. (2020)
|
$234,482
|
$4.8 million
|
$26.3 million
|
|
Love & Friendship (2016)
|
$133,513
|
$2.4 million
|
$21.4 million
|
|
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
|
$5.3 million
|
-
|
$16.4 million
|
|
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
|
$2.8 million
|
$7.1 million
|
$120.4 million
|
|
Mansfield Park (1999)
|
$85,608
|
$334,853
|
$4.8 million
|
|
Emma (1996)
|
$240,649
|
$2.5 million
|
$22.2 million
|
|
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
|
$721,341
|
$3.3 million
|
$43.2 million
|
When Sense and Sensibility's projected per-screen average of $2,633 is compared to the other previous releases, it lands more toward the bottom of the chart, only surpassing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies ($1,816) and failing to compare to the top titles, which are Emma. ($46,896) and Love & Friendship ($33,378).
However, its trajectory could benefit from the fact that Sense and Sensibility reviews from verified audience members have so far earned it a stellar 90% score on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter. This sees it tying with the Popcornmeter scores of the 1995 adaptation and 2005's Pride and Prejudice, which could mean it has a similar trajectory to those titles. That could allow it to potentially gross between $85 and $120 million by the end of its run. Considering the fact that it reportedly cost $25 million, it most likely doesn't need to earn more than $63 million to break even.
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Additionally, Sense and Sensibility is set to earn the third-best domestic debut for any Austen-derived work, beating movies like the biopic Becoming Jane ($972,066) and the ensemble drama The Jane Austen Book Club ($148,549), only following the Emma adaptation Clueless ($10.6 million) and the Pride and Prejudice adaptation Bridget Jones's Diary ($10.7 million).
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Release Date
October 16, 2026
Runtime
132 minutes
Director
Georgia Oakley
Writers
Diana Reid
Producers
Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Jo Wallett, India Flint
Cast
-
-
Esme Creed-Miles
Marianne Dashwood
English (US) ·