Position Paper 2 | Image Enhancement: Wuthering Heights

This past February, Emerald Fennell's adaptation of the famous 1847 gothic romance novel, Wuthering Heights was released into theatres, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. "Wuthering Heights" is a passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moons, exploring destructive relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. It's best described as a dark romance. This film eliminates the concept of happily-ever-after and the smooth, fairytale romance that the people admire. This eerie, gothic love story is rough around the edges--filled with eroticism and obstacles as the two yearn for only each other and themselves.

Warner Bros. released the film's trailer early November 2025, which since then has gained over 28 million views. Like any trailer, this trailer was a tease to a dark romance with hints of Shakespear's Juliet and Romeo themed ideas. This is not the first time an adaptation of the original story has been created, but this modern version evoked deep, emotional feeling from the viewers from the trailer alone. After the movie was released, there were hundreds of thousands of controversial reviews (some being good). A user on TikTok commented, "so like after the movie ended, my heart was pounding and my stomach hurt, and not a single tear was shed. I was truly BROKEN and still am. Such a good movie but DAMN."

"Wuthering Heights" delivered a robust opening that ignited the marketing plan; the film debuted the biggest global opening of 2026 so far with an estimated $82-83 million worldwide over Presidents' Day/Valentine's weekend. Domestically, this film pulled $38 million and around $45 million in international markets, which exceeded the production budget of $80 million early on. 

This film was scheduled to and was released on Valentine's Day, which was the perfect opportunity laid out for all lovers of love to watch the new, sexy movie in theatres on the love holiday. It's safe to say that the holiday-release date ignited the fire under the film's ticket sales. 

Margot Robbie and her co-worker, Jacob Elordi did multiple interviews that circled social media widely after the movie was released. The cast shared lots of chemistry-related topics in Fandango's Big-Ticket Interview with Nikki Novak. In this interview, we get to see the actor's personality behind the screen along with their connection with one another and their perspective of the main characters, Heathcliff and Catherine. 

During this interview, Jacob Elordi states, "Regardless of plot or screenplay, if you have the opportunity to share a filmset with Margot Robbie, you're gonna make sure you're within five to ten meters at all times, watching as she drinks tea, as she eats her food, how she does it. When is she going to slip? When is the thing going to come undone? And it never comes undone." Here he is referring to Margot Robbie's persona and consistency in playing her role as he deems her an "elite actor".

Elordi explains what the filming looked like trying to get things just right on set. He explains how the two actors would relish in the atmosphere and really sit in the spirit of their characters to deeply take in pieces of Heathcliff and Catherine's "unrequited love". 

@rottentomatoes “It really did feel like you were catching little pieces of that unrequited love." #WutheringHeights star Jacob Elordi shares how he built chemistry with Margot Robbie in Fandango's Big Ticket Interview. #jacobelordi #margotrobbie #movie #movietok ♬ original sound - Rotten Tomatoes

Fans get to see Margot Robbie interact with her co-star, Alison Oliver during the Elite Daily interview. 21st century film marketing tactics generally include the main immediate cast being presented during interviews, and the fans get a taste of all personalities outside of the characters they portray in the film. 

The cast appears in other interviews with Vogue, Page Six, Rotten Tomatoes, Numero Magazine, Town & Country Magazine, The Hub, and others. These interviews are what the people want to see--especially with the many disapproval ratings of this film arrangement. The people want to see if the actors truly enjoyed this version of Bronte's story. They want to see the actors up close and personal and speculate their every move and every word.

Critics have mentioned "method-dressing" playing a great part in the marketing. On red carpets during the press tour and interviews, Robbie and Elordi wear modernized clothing that mimics their wear in the film. This is a popular tactic that many entities in the entertainment industry use to allow their theme to resonate for some time--to color the picture of the production. These "showmance" optics are great for the creating their image.

This approach gives hints of Margot Robbie's marketing campaign from Warner Bros' 2023 iconic film, Barbie.

This film has done a great deal of media campaigns and publicity events to enhance the image of this adaptive film long before it was released. These actors have significantly colored the picture of "Wuthering Heights" alongside their true dedication to this movie and their characters through successful media campaigns.

@jakestakestv Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi had a drink (or three) before shooting their soon-to-be-iconic poster for WUTHERING HEIGHTS. #movie #margotrobbie #jacobelordi #wutheringheights #fyp ♬ original sound - JakesTakesTV