“Wuthering Heights,” a steamy romantic drama starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is heating up the box office over Valentine’s Day weekend.
The R-rated film has debuted to $34.8 million from 3,682 North American theaters and is projected to earn $40 million through President’s Day on Monday. Rivals believe the four-day figure will be closer to $35 million. In a box office twist, “Wuthering Heights” enjoyed a bigger start at the international box office with $42 million from 76 territories for a global launch of $82 million. Since the initial domestic ticket sales are slightly softer than expected, the movie may rely on overseas audiences to justify its $80 million production budget (not including the tens of millions spent on the global promotional tour).
Emerald Fennell wrote and directed “Wuthering Heights,” which is her third feature film following the Oscar-winning revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman” and ultra-provocative “Saltburn.” Netflix had offered to pay a staggering $150 million for Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë’s novel about a toxic couple in 18th century England. However, the filmmaker and producers, including Robbie, opted to take less money from Warner Bros. in exchange for a wide theatrical release and full-scale marketing campaign. The partnership resulted in the ninth consecutive No. 1 opening for Warner Bros. following a string of hits such as “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines” and “Weapons.”
“They were right [to want a theatrical release]. It’s paying off,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “The classic material, good-looking actors, and steamy treatment are connecting. Business should be strong overseas, thanks to Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.”
Like the spicy “Fifth Shades” trilogy and rom-coms “Isn’t It Romantic” and “How to Be Single” before it, “Wuthering Heights” was the de facto choice for women around Valentine’s Day. More than 75% of opening weekend crowds were women. However, they were mixed on the film, which earned a “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls, so it’s unclear what that’ll mean for word-of-mouth.
“Wuthering Heights” towered over several newcomers, including the animated sports adventure “GOAT” and heist thriller “Crime 101” with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan. Two holdovers, survival thriller “Send Help” and the Angel Studios rom-com “Solo Mio,” rounded out the top five.
“GOAT” debuted in second place with $26 million from 3,862 venues over the weekend and a projected $32 million through the four-day holiday frame. It collected $15.6 million from 42 overseas markets (60% of its international rollout) for a worldwide tally of $47.6 million. It’s a respectable start at a challenging time for original animation. (Disney’s Pixar, considered the gold standard in animation, has particularly struggled to launch a new property in several years.) Sony Pictures Animation, which produced “GOAT” for $80 million, hopes the well-received sports story will become a slow-and-steady hit in the vein of recent Universal and DreamWorks properties that showed impressive box office endurance, including 2023’s “Migration” (which opened to $12.7 million and eventually earned $300 million globally) and 2024’s “The Wild Robot (which debuted to $35 million and powered to $334 million worldwide).
Directed by Tyree Dillihay and produced by NBA champ Steph Curry, “GOAT” follows an anthropomorphic goat who aspires to become the greatest of all time at a basketball-esque sport called roarball. Audiences, most of whom were families, gave the movie an “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls, which bodes well for word-of-mouth. Plus, there won’t be competition on the kid-friendly front until Pixar’s “Hoppers” arrives in March.
“Crime 101” stumbled in the No. 3 spot with $15.1 million from 3,161 locations over the weekend and a projected $17.7 million through Monday’s holiday. Rivals believe the four-day number will be closer to $15 million to $16 million. Internationally, the movie collected $12 million from 60 territories. It would be a decent start for R-rated adult-oriented fare, except that Amazon MGM spent $90 million to produce the film. Since theater owners keep roughly half of ticket sales, “Crime 101” will need to stick around in theaters long after opening weekend to justify its price tag. Reviews were positive, though moviegoers were mixed, as evidenced by the “B” CinemaScore grade. Bart Layton (“American Animals”) directed “Crime 101,” which stars Hemsworth as an elusive jewel thief who plots high-stake heists across the Los Angeles freeway.
Amazon MGM would argue that “Crime 101” doesn’t need to be a box office juggernaut in order to be successful. The e-retailer-turned-media giant has said in the past that it’s only aiming to earn back its marketing and distribution spend and is looking to theatrical to elevate a film’s launch on Prime Video. Industry rivals, many of whom also operate streaming services, believe that’s a dubious explanation for an expenditure of this size, in the case of “Crime 101.” Moreover, viewership metrics across all streaming platforms go largely unreported, so it’s nearly impossible to know what constitutes a win in the streaming era. Amazon MGM, which has released the Chris Pratt-led “Mercy” and first lady documentary “Melania” earlier this year to middling results, could rebound in the spring with “Project Hail Mary,” a sci-fi adventure starring Ryan Gosling.
“Send Help,” a well-reviewed horror film starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, slid to fourth place with $9 million over the weekend and an estimated $10.7 million through Monday. After three weekends of release (two of which were spent at No. 1), the Disney movie has generated $48 million and $72 million globally against a $40 million budget. With an assist from “Send Help,” though mostly due to the continued success of “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Disney is the first studio to cross the $1 billion mark at the global box office in 2026.
Fifth place went to “Solo Mio” with $6.2 million over the weekend and a projected $7.8 million through the four-day stretch. The PG film, featuring Kevin James as a man who gets left at the altar and goes on his honeymoon alone, has grossed $18 million after two weekends on the big screen.
Another newcomer, sci-fi comedy adventure “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” opened at No. 7 with $3.6 million from 1,610 theaters over the weekend and an estimated $4.1 million through Monday. Sam Rockwell and Haley Lu Richardson star in the film, which follows a futuristic man who takes hostages at a Los Angeles diner to recruit a band of heroes to help him save the world. Gore Verbinski, best known for directing three “Pirates of the Caribbean” installments, directed “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” with Briarcliff Entertainment handling the theatrical rollout. It received a “B” grade on CinemaScore.
In limited release, Neon’s mockumentary “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie” started strong with $1.2 million over the traditional weekend and an estimated $1.4 million through Monday from just 365 screens. Directed by Matt Johnson, the Canadian sci-fi adventure — which has nothing to do with the actual band Nirvana — follows two friends who travel back to 2008 after moonlighting as a group called “Nirvanna the Band” and attempting to book a gig at a hip Toronto bar called the Rivoli.
Domestic revenues are 8% ahead of 2025’s tally, according to Comscore. That number shrank because a year ago, Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” launched to $100 million over the four-day President’s Day holiday in 2025. Although this weekend was solid for counter-programming, there’s pressure on upcoming releases like “Scream 7,” “Hoppers,” director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “Frankenstein” remake “The Bride!” and Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” to warm up the box office into winter and spring.
“Although the lack of a Marvel movie made for a comparatively quiet President’s Day weekend, a host of newcomers benefited from the extended holiday frame,” says Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian. “This could be the weekend that creates much-needed momentum heading into the month of March.”