Tom Hardy's 2-Part Historical Epic Steals 'Wuthering Heights' Audience at Home

1 week ago 13

Published Feb 16, 2026, 3:33 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.

With director Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights adaptation dividing audiences and critics into two absolute factions, a glimmer of lamplight has been shining on older adaptations of Emily Brontë's seminal 19th-century novel. These adaptations date back over a century. Interestingly, a 1920 silent film served as the inspiration behind the title treatment for Fennell's adaptation. In 1939, Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, and David Niven starred in an adaptation directed by the great William Wyler. Luis Buñuel directed a Spanish version some years later, while the book's tragic elements served as inspiration for a host of Indian films as well. However, one adaptation in particular has witnessed a bigger bump than the others thanks to Fennell's film.

This version was released as a two-part television series in 2009, and is largely viewed as one of the novel's more faithful adaptations. It doesn't, however, have an official Rotten Tomatoes critics' score, although audiences have rated it 84% on the aggregator website. By comparison, Fennell's provocative new film, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, currently holds a 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's 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." The new movie has received polarizing reviews, with one section of the audience infatuated with Fennell's transgressive vision, and the other up in arms at her disregard for the source material.

Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' Delivered a Major Haul in Its Box Office Debut

The 2009 version was directed by Coky Giedroyc; it featured Tom Hardy in an early starring role as Heathcliff, and Charlotte Riley as Catherine Earnshaw. The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln played the dapper foil to Heathcliff, Edgar Linton. According to FlixPatrol, the 2009 Wuthering Heights charted on Amazon and iTunes charts domestically on February 16, shortly after Fennell's film debuted with a bang at the box office. The new movie grossed $40 million domestically over the extended President's Day weekend, and another $42 million from overseas markets for a cumulative global haul of $82 million. The movie cost a reported $80 million to produce, and is off to a flying start despite — or, perhaps, because of — the divisive reactions. You can watch the 2009 version of Wuthering Heights at home, and Fennell's new film in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.