27 Years Later, Tim Burton’s Underrated Gothic Horror Falls Behind 'Wuthering Heights' at the Box Office

Image via Paramount Pictures

Published Mar 8, 2026, 11:06 AM EDT

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.

Oscar-winning director Emerald Fennell's controversial Wuthering Heights has more than a few aesthetic nods to the films of Tim Burton, and has now overtaken one of his most underrated hits at the box office. Burton has cemented himself as perhaps the most influential director working in the Gothic genre over the last few decades, bringing a signature macabre tone to even his Batman movie. He recently returned to form with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, his biggest hit in more than a decade. Over the course of his career, Burton has made a name for himself with Gothic films such as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Dark Shadows, Edward Scissorhands, and Frankenweenie. However, his most underrated Gothic horror film got swept under a wave of landmark releases in 1999.

This was the year of The Matrix, American Beauty, The Sixth Sense, and Fight Club. Except for David Fincher's cult classic, each of these movies grossed more than Burton's 1999 offering. Not that Burton's film underperformed; it made more than $200 million worldwide and earned mostly positive reviews. In fact, the movie in question offered the most fully realized version of Burton's singular aesthetic, with moody hues, dark humor, and those instantly recognizable trees. It now holds a 71% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which is higher than the 58% score Wuthering Heights is currently sitting at.

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That said, Fennell's movie has now overtaken the $207 million worldwide haul of Burton's film, which, in case you haven't guessed already, is Sleepy Hollow. Produced on a reported budget of $100 million, the movie marked Burton's third collaboration with Johnny Depp, who landed the role of Ichabod Crane even though Paramount wanted Brad Pitt or Daniel Day-Lewis. Depp was joined by Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Christopher Lee, and Richard Griffiths. The film was based on the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which was published in 1820, only 27 years before Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights." Fennell's film stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, and has grossed more than $210 million worldwide so far, against a reported budget of $80 million. You can watch Wuthering Heights in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.