4 hours ago
7
Valentine’s Day fell on Saturday this weekend so all eyes were on a relationship conceived nearly 200 years ago. Critics were pretty mixed on it and expectations were more promising than it actually played out. That was actually true for both the original animated film and the throwback heist film, for those who may have had to sit through the latest from the director of Saltburn. While the Presidents’ Day holiday couldn’t match the years when Marvel films added over $100 million alone to the total, the weekend still bested 2022 and 2024’s totals with a little something for everyone.
King of the Crop: Wuthering Heights Smolders Its Way to a $35 Million Debut
Emerald Fennell has an Oscar for writing Promising Young Woman. She has a viral clip of Tina Fey calling out the “sexually violent” turns of her third acts. Well, now she has a No. 1 movie at the box office. Her adaptation of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi opened to $35 million this weekend and an estimated $40 million through the holiday. There have been countless adaptations over the years, not just of Wuthering Heights but obviously of books in general. The Passion of the Christ notwithstanding (based upon just a fraction of its source material, just like “Wuthering Heights”), Fennell’s film missed besting Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby ($50.08 million) for the best opening ever for an adaptation of the oldest publication. That’s 1847 vs. 1925 for the record.
Tracking estimates were putting “Wuthering” in the $40- and even $50-million range for its opening. There were a lot of overestimations for the holiday weekend across the board, but whether it was inflated expectations or word-of-mouth kicking in early, the film went from potentially having one of the best February openings ever to having the 27th best. Seven of the 16 films to open between $30-40 million this month did reach $100 million, but is a major drop in the cards for its second weekend? No February film since 1992 has grossed less than $16.4 million in weekend two and gone on to reach eight domestic digits. It would only take a 47% drop for that to happen. The $80 million production has added another $42 million internationally so far and may need to get over eight digits itself for this one to get out of the red during its theatrical run. That said, if you have seen the film, you know it will be hard for the film to get away from the red, so to speak.
Tales of the top 10: Animated GOAT Opens in Second, Crime 101 Rounds Out the Top Three
There have been some competing headlines (or tweets) over how big the opening of Sony’s animated sports comedy GOAT was going to be, specifically in regards to it being an original animated film. Some were going back to 2017, saying it was going to be the best opening since Pixar’s Coco ($50.8 million), when in fact, if it lived up to expectations, it would have actually been the best for an original since Pixar’s Onward ($39.1 million) in 2020, which was shut down by the announcement of a pandemic a week later.
Well, now it’s not quite as impressive, as GOAT had the best opening for an original animated film since Elemental ($29.6 million). Its opening haul of $26 million is closer than last summer’s Elio ($20.8 million), plus it cost only about 60% as much. February has not been a huge month for animation in terms of quantity; a $12 million opening would have been good enough to crack the top 10. (Three LEGO films are in the top five.) But GOAT enters the list at sixth behind The Lego Movie 2 ($34.1 million) and ahead of Gnomeo and Juliet ($25.3 million) and Coraline ($16.8 million), the latter of which got to $75 million. The average multiple of the other films in the top 10 is a solid 3.55, which would put GOAT at around a $92 million haul when all is said and done. It’s a promising start for a film that could use some international support to come out on top for Sony. It has made another $15.6 million outside the U.S. so far.
Bart Layton’s Crime 101 with the parade of Marvel heroes in Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, and Barry Keoghan opened in third place. The adaptation of the Don Winslow novella from the director of American Animals (88%) and the 2012 documentary The Impostor (95%) began with $15.4 million, which is on the higher side for Hemsworth’s non-Marvel vehicles, including 2012’s Red Dawn ($14.2 million), 2013’s Rush ($10.01 million), Blackhat ($8.005 million), In the Heart of the Sea ($11.05 million), The Huntsman: Winter’s War ($19.4 million), and 12 Strong ($15.8 million). None of those films extended to $50 million domestic and only Huntsman got over $100 million globally. Meanwhile, its Tomatometer is Certified Fresh at 86%. We’ll see if audiences spread the word on the $90 million production. The estimated $17.7 million through the holiday is not doing the books any favors.
Sam Raimi’s Send Help was ousted out of its top spot after two weeks; it was the first new release of 2026 to spend multiple weeks at No. 1. This week it falls to fourth place with just a 10% drop to $8.9 million and an estimated 18-day total through the holiday of $49.6 million. The film is besting the path of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, beating its third weekend of $5.7 million. That film had $43.8 million after 17 days and ultimately got itself just over $55 million, but Send Help will be finishing closer to $70 million. It is up to $24 million overseas and is going to want to get around $35 million to give 20th Century Studios and Disney a nice cushion to declare victory during theatrical.
Last week’s Kevin James rom-com, Solo Mio, fell from second to fifth this week, but it also only fell 2% from last week’s total, with $6.8 million over the weekend and an estimated $8 million through the holiday. That would bring its 11-day total to $18.6 million. Angel Studios had its fifth-best opening with it, and it is about to become their fifth $20 million grosser. On Feb. 3, their animated David, released over the holidays, passed $80 million domestic. Their animated The King of Kings also made $60 million last year. Not a bad overall year for them.
Despite the success of the initial Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy ($2.68 billion worldwide) and an Oscar for Rango in 2011, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is the first film from director Gore Verbinski since his 2017 horror film A Cure For Wellness. Perhaps the failure of The Lone Ranger was too much for some, but here he is with Briarcliff distributing his latest and seeing it open to $3.6 million. The $4.1 million estimated through Monday is still less than Wellness’ $4.35 million start. That may make it the lowest start for Verbinski, but it is the best start for Briarcliff, besting their 2022 opening for Blacklight with Liam Neeson ($3.5 million) if the estimates hold.
The three-plus-billion team — $3.24 billion and counting between them, to be precise — of Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to chug along. With $5 million estimated through the holiday, Disney’s animated film has its total over $420 million, now only about $3 million away from passing A Minecraft Movie’s domestic gross, which it could do by next weekend. It has made $1.829 billion globally to date. James Cameron’s animated film, meanwhile, made an estimated $3 million through Monday, trying to tiptoe its way to $400 million domestic. Right now it stands at $396.5 million. Whether it makes it or not, the third Avatar film will not have grossed as much in North America as Minecraft or Lilo & Stitch, ranking it fourth for 2025. But hey, $1.46 billion worldwide to date isn’t too shabby.
Horror wraps up the top 10 this week. The self-distributed success of Iron Lung continued for a third weekend, grossing $3.3 million over the weekend and $3.7 million through the holiday to bring its total to $37.9 million. Luc Besson’s Dracula held on with $2.5 million and another half million estimated through Monday to bring the $52 million production released by Vertical up to $9.5 million, their highest theatrical release to date.
Beyond the Top 10: The Strangers: Chapter 3 Quietly Fades Away
Lionsgate will have a better showing next week, but this weekend watches as Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 3 peters out with $2.2 million, bringing its total to just $7.2 million through the holiday. Their investment is already in profit, but neither critics nor audiences needed closure from this trilogy other than being thankful that it is over. Jason Statham’s film Shelter may have fallen out of the top 10 in its third week, but the Black Bear release continues to make money internationally. It has made just $11.9 million domestic but almost double that ($23.5 million) outside of North America. Also continuing to do well is Chloe Zhao’s Oscar contender Hamnet, which is nearly at $80 million worldwide.
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s time-travel comedy Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie opened in 365 theaters. Reviews for it are ecstatic, and the response on social media is even greater. Neon saw its limited opening make $1.2 million over the weekend, and it’s estimated to make another $200,000 on Monday. Expand while its hot, Neon! Samuel Goldwyn released the adaptation of David Koepp’s novel Cold Storage in nearly three times as many theaters. The horror-comedy grossed $1.1 million in 1,041 theaters. A24 expanded Charli XCX’s The Moment into 1,119 theaters this weekend (up from 581 last week) and it still fell 73% to just $447,000. It has grossed $3.4 million to date. They also got Pillion into 20 more theaters, and it made $350,000 in just 24 venues.
On the Vine: I Can Only Imagine 2, Psycho Killer, and How to Make a Killing
Lionsgate is going from The Strangers to Christian music as it looks to win next weekend with I Can Only Imagine 2, the sequel to the very successful 2018 film that grossed over $83 million for them. Also opening is Psycho Killer, the directorial debut of producer Gavin Polone from the writer of Se7en, though 20th Century Studios is not screening it for critics. Then, from Emily the Criminal director John Patton Ford, A24 releases How to Make a Killing with Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley.
Full List of Box Office Results: February 13-15/16, 2026
- “Wuthering Heights” – $34.8 million (3-day), $40.0 million (4-day); $40.0 million total
- GOAT – $26.0 million (3-day), $32.0 million (4-day); $32.0 million total
- Crime 101 – $15.4 million (3-day), $17.7 million (4-day); $17.7 million total
- Send Help – $8.9 million (3-day), $10.7 million (4-day); $49.6 million total
- Solo Mio – $6.8 million (3-day), $8.0 million (4-day); $18.5 million total
- Zootopia 2 – $3.7 million (3-day), $5.0 million (4-day); $420.6 million total
- Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – $3.6 million (3-day), $4.1 million (4-day); $4.1 million total
- Avatar: Fire and Ash – Avatar: Fire and Ash – $3.3 million (3-day), $3.8 million (4-day); $396.5 million total
- Iron Lung – $3.3 million (3-day), $3.7 million (4-day); $37.9 million total
- Dracula – $3.0 million (3-day), $3.5 million (4-day); $9.5 million total
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
English (US) ·