{"id":292875,"date":"2026-02-15T17:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/292875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T17:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T17:42:11","slug":"wuthering-heights-box-office-women-drive-margot-robbie-and-jacob-elordi-film-to-no-1-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/292875\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wuthering Heights’ box office: Women drive Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi film to No. 1 spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emerald Fennell\u2019s bold reimagining of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d<\/a> brought crowds of women to movie theaters this weekend. The Warner Bros. release topped the box office charts<\/a> and nabbed the title for the year\u2019s biggest opening with $34.8 million in ticket sales in its first three days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. According to PostTrak polling, an estimated 76% of those ticket buyers were women. By the end of Monday\u2019s Presidents Day holiday<\/a>, the total could rise to $40 million from its 3,682 locations. <\/p>\n

The romantic drama starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the star-crossed Catherine and Heathcliff, won out over the weekend\u2019s other newcomers, including the animated \u201cGOAT\u201d<\/a> and the heist thriller \u201cCrime 101.\u201d<\/a> Its biggest day was Saturday\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day holiday, where it earned $14 million. \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d is also performing even better internationally, where it\u2019s expecting to rake in an additional $42 million from 76 territories. <\/p>\n

The Warner Bros.\/MRC production cost a reported $80 million to produce, not accounting for the millions spent on marketing and promotion. If the four-day totals match the estimates, that makes for a strong $82 million global debut. And the film still has several big openings on the horizon, in Japan and Vietnam on Feb. 27, and in China on March 13.<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/p>\n

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The success comes while the future of Warner Bros. hangs in the balance<\/a>, as Paramount continues to sweeten<\/a> its hostile takeover bid in hopes of winning out over Netflix. \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d is the studio\u2019s ninth No. 1 opening in a row.<\/p>\n

Fennell\u2019s version of \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d which takes many liberties with Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s<\/a> novel, largely divided critics. It\u2019s currently sitting at a mixed 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. While that didn\u2019t dissuade audiences from buying tickets, only 51% of the opening weekend audience said that they would \u201cdefinitely recommend\u201d the film to friends. Moviegoers also gave it a less-than-stellar B CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

The mid-February weekend has hosted big superhero movies on occasion, including \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and \u201cDeadpool,\u201d but a more relevant comparison is \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d<\/a> and its two sequels. The first movie opened to over $85 million, the third to $38.6 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a solid if not record-breaking Presidents Day\/Valentines weekend,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, who heads marketplace trends for Comscore. \u201cBut that was to be expected without an MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGOAT,\u201d an animated Sony release produced by basketball star Stephen Curry, landed in second place with an estimated $26 million from 3,863 locations. It\u2019s projected to bring in another $6 million on Monday, which would bring its four day total to $32 million \u2014 the biggest animated debut since \u201cElemental\u201d in 2023. It also pulled in $15.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $47.6 million. <\/p>\n

The family-friendly film was the only new opener of the weekend to get an A CinemaScore. Sony Pictures Animation was also behind \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In third place, \u201cCrime 101\u201d made an estimated $15.1 million in its first three days. Amazon MGM Studios opened the Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo led Los Angeles-set thriller in 3,161 theaters. It\u2019s expected to pull in about $17.8 million by the end of Monday, but the movie has a long way to go to even hit its production budget, which reportedly exceeded $90 million. Audiences, who were 56% men, also gave \u201cCrime 101\u201d a B CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\u201cSend Help\u201d and \u201cSolo Mio\u201d rounded out the top five with $9 million and $6.4 million, respectively. Further down the charts, at No. 7, was Briarcliff Entertainment\u2019s sci-fi comedy \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d<\/a> starring Sam Rockwell and Haley Lu Richardson. It made an estimated $3.6 million from 1,610 locations.<\/p>\n

The Walt Disney Studios also celebrated a milestone this weekend, becoming the first studio to cross $1 billion at the global box office in 2026, driven almost entirely by \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d but also helped by the continued success of \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d which remains in the top 10 after twelve weekends in theaters. <\/p>\n

The weekend is down significantly from the same weekend last year, when \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World\u201d opened<\/a>, but the pace is starting to pick up and theaters have \u201cScream 7\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a rather slow first quarter,\u201d Dergarabedian said. \u201cBut this could ignite a spark at the box office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top 10 movies by domestic box office<\/p>\n

With final domestic figures being released Tuesday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d $34.8 million.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cGOAT,\u201d $26 million.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cCrime 101,\u201d $15.1 million.<\/p>\n

4. \u201cSend Help,\u201d $9 million.<\/p>\n

5. \u201cSolo Mio,\u201d $6.4 million.<\/p>\n

6. \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d $3.8 million.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d $3.6 million.<\/p>\n

8. \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d $3.3 million.<\/p>\n

9. \u201cIron Lung,\u201d $3.1 million.<\/p>\n

10. \u201cDracula,\u201d $3 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emerald Fennell\u2019s bold reimagining of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d brought crowds of women to movie theaters this weekend. The Warner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25430,4670,32097,884,15170,148817,146,122,128714,85,46,5039,10926,19828,4178,397,25669,30047,78750,132811,8890,917],"class_list":["post-292875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-animation-and-comics","tag-california","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-comedy","tag-emerald-fennell","tag-emily-bront","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-haley-lu-richardson","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jacob-elordi","tag-margot-robbie","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-media","tag-movies","tag-paul-dergarabedian","tag-sam-rockwell","tag-scifi-and-fantasy","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-stephen-curry","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}