{"id":310751,"date":"2026-02-22T01:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/310751\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T01:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T01:53:13","slug":"jacob-elordis-controversial-new-movie-losing-its-1-status-to-an-animated-underdog-in-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/310751\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Elordi’s Controversial New Movie Losing Its #1 Status To An Animated Underdog In Week 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wuthering Heights<\/a> won’t climb higher than GOAT<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n

Emerald Fennell’s controversial Wuthering Heights movie<\/a> – which has been criticized for featuring Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff instead of an actor of color – debuted on Valentine’s weekend opposite Sony Pictures Animation’s new animated sports movie GOAT. Wuthering Heights took No. 1 with $32.8 million (the biggest domestic debut of 2026 so far), but GOAT was a close No. 2 with $27.2 million.<\/p>\n

Now, the two movies are set to swap places on the chart during their mutual sophomore weekend. Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Wuthering Heights is projected to earn a 3-day total of $14.7 million at the domestic box office by the end of its sophomore weekend. It has been in a neck-and-neck race for No. 1 with GOAT, which has pulled ahead with projections of $15.7 million.<\/p>\n

This change in position is accounted for by the fact that 2026’s Wuthering Heights<\/a> is falling 55% week-over-week while GOAT is only dropping 42%. That’s not an unexpected result, as animated movies tend to have strong audiences holds and Wuthering Heights was a romance that debuted over Valentine’s Day, which naturally gave it a boost in weekend 1 thanks to date night screenings.<\/p>\n

Both movies have reported budgets of roughly $80 million, which could ultimately place their estimated theatrical break-even points as high as $200 million apiece. However, both could be set to hit that number by the end of their runs. In fact, Wuthering Heights has already hit a cumulative domestic total of $60.5 million, and it has earned more than double that figure worldwide.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the faith-based music biopic sequel I Can Only Imagine 2, which is the only new wide release playing in more than 2,000 theaters, is set to debut at No. 3 with an opening weekend total between $8 and $9 million.<\/p>\n

This would be a significant drop from the $17.1 million debut of the original I Can Only Imagine in 2018. However, that movie was a smash hit, grossing $86 million against a reported $7 million budget.<\/p>\n

While the sequel has a significantly higher reported budget of $18 million, that is still relatively low for a contemporary release. Even with the sequel’s diminishing returns, there is a lot of room for it to turn a profit by the end of its run. <\/p>\n

Overall, Wuthering Heights, GOAT, and I Can Only Imagine 2 have helped propel the domestic box office to a $75.4 million weekend. This is just 3% lower than the post-Presidents’ Day frame from 2025, which was the sophomore weekend of Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoy ScreenRant’s box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check “Box Office” in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more:<\/p>\n

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\"wuthering-heights-poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 13, 2026<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t136 Minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmerald Fennell<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmerald Fennell, Emily Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n

Producers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMargot Robbie<\/a>, Tom Ackerley, Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara<\/p>\n

\"goat-poster.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Release Date<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 13, 2026<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t93 minutes<\/p>\n

Director<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTyree Dillihay<\/p>\n

Writers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAaron Buchsbaum, Teddy Riley, Nicolas Curcio<\/p>\n

Producers<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRodney Rothman, Stephen Curry, Michelle Raimo Kouyate, Erick Peyton, Adam Rosenberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wuthering Heights won’t climb higher than GOAT this weekend. Emerald Fennell’s controversial Wuthering Heights movie – which has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-310751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}