Margot Robbie's Rage-Inducing Book Adaptation Escapes David Fincher's Cult Classic Crime Movie

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Margot Robbie, 2026. © Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection

Published Feb 18, 2026, 6:06 PM EST

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Director Emerald Fennell's credentials as a provocateur are certainly up for debate, following the divisive response to her third feature, Wuthering Heights. However, the movie had a terrific debut at the box office and has overtaken the lifetime worldwide box office gross of another provocateur's most underrated film. Wuthering Heights debuted last week to polarizing reviews that either praised the film's maximalism or scolded Fennell for making a mockery of Emily Brontë's classic 19th-century novel. The furor around the film has only increased in the days since, and it seems to be doing wonders for its box office performance. In five days flat, Wuthering Heights has set itself up to hit the $100 million mark worldwide.

With Wuthering Heights' current global total of $92 million, the movie was able to recoup its reported $80 million production budget in its opening weekend alone; Warner Bros. reportedly spent a total of $180 million on the project, which includes marketing and other ancillary costs. As part of the deal Margot Robbie struck with the studio when it bought the film’s rights, she and Jacob Elordi embarked on a massive publicity tour. Netflix had reportedly bid nearly twice as much, but Robbie and Fennell wanted their film to receive a theatrical release. The move appears to have paid off, even if the reviews haven't been entirely positive. The movie holds a 60% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics' consensus reads, "Liberally adapting Emily Brontë's classic story with a heavy dose of carnality and chic stylization, Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights might not be the stuff of high literature but it is a visually vibrant pleasure."

Here's the Cult Classic That 'Wuthering Heights' Has Overtaken at the Box Office

With $88 million at the worldwide box office in five days, Wuthering Heights has overtaken the lifetime global haul of David Fincher's Zodiac, which featured Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo. The crime epic — which follows a cartoonist and a journalist's investigation into real-life serial killings in 1970s California — famously underperformed at the box office. Despite grossing $84 million globally against an $85 million budget, the movie has firmly established itself as one of the greatest cult classics of all time and one of the best films of the 21st century. Wuthering Heights has "cult classic" written all over it as well. You can watch the movie in theaters, while Zodiac is available at home. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.