UK audiences were blown away by Wuthering Heights as the film grossed £7.7m over the Valentine’s Day weekend | film

Wuthering Heights, the controversial adaptation of Emily Brontë’s doomed love story, has risen to the top of the UK box office, taking £7.7 million during its opening weekend. This represents a significant overperformance compared to North America, where it took in around $38 million (UK box office is typically around 10-15% of US revenue).

The homeland advantage may help explain some of the enthusiasm surrounding the film, shot by a British woman in the Yorkshire Dales, and whose supporting cast also hails largely from the UK. The lukewarm reviews likely won’t impact the box office much given strong advance sales and increased appetite over Valentine’s Day weekend.

The film was widely viewed across 761 sites and averaged £10,030. The UK weekend has already surpassed the domestic box office total of £5.6m for Fennell’s previous film, Saltburn (although that was also a huge success on streaming); As well as last year’s hit romantic drama ‘Materialists’ which grossed £3.9m in the UK.

For comparison, Hamnet took £3m in its opening weekend in the UK and currently stands at £16.4m, while The Housemaid started with £4.4m and now stands at £29m. All four titles target the female demographic.

However, Wuthering Heights’ box office is less than the £11.8m achieved by Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which opened in UK cinemas over Valentine’s Day weekend last year. This film finished its run in the UK with £46 million. It went straight to broadcast in the United States.

Warner Bros. is bracing for a significant drop in the film’s sales in the second week, with the majority of pre-release bookings coinciding with the Valentine’s Day weekend. In the United States, word of mouth was less strong than the studio had hoped, and only 51% of weekend audiences said they would “definitely recommend” the film to friends.

Moviegoers also gave it a B on CinemaScore, which polls audience members as they exit the cinema.

The second and third places at the UK box office also mirrored those in the UK, where animated family sports film GOAT took in £2.2 million, and blockbuster drama Crime 101 took in £1.4 million.