‘GOAT’s Got Game Over ‘Wuthering Heights’ In U.S. With $17M, But Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie Pic Hugs $151M+ WW Cume – Box Office Update

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU after Saturday update: Some good news: the post-Presidents Day weekend in U.S./Canada wasn’t that slow with all films grossing just over $79M, +2% from a year ago. The 2026 year to date B.O. stands at $1.05 billion, still ahead of 2025 by 7% per industry estimates. Before Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives to rain cash over the Easter stretch (April 1), March on paper looks like it will continue a momentum with Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers, Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary, Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (which they’re already screening ahead of SXSW, talk about excitement), and New Line’s They Will Kill You. That’s a much better crop than last March with its misfires Mickey 17, Snow White, and Novocaine which gave us fear that moviegoing was truly dead (before A Minecraft Movie showed up).

Sony Pictures Animation’s GOAT started the weekend in a too-close-to-call situation with Warner Bros/MRC’s Wuthering Heights at the domestic box office, and now the horned animal has a $3.2M lead over the R-rated naughty period movie with a No. 1 of $17M (-38%) in its second session. Wuthering Heights saw a second frame of $14.2M in U.S./Canada (-57%, not bad for a female heavy movie, the thinking was this would sink like a stone) and a running domestic cume of $60M. But the greater climax for Heathcliff and Cathy is global where Wuthering Heights minted a combined $40.5M WW weekend ($970K from Imax screens) taking its overall cume to $151.7M in 77 markets.

GOAT doing well around the world as well with a global running cume of $102.3M (oveseas running total is $44M).

Box office might be sluggish over here post holiday, but it’s on fire over in China where the top five pics over New Year’s since Tuesday have racked a cumulative total of $725.9M, led by racing car movie Pegasus 3 ($387.6M/2.6B RmB), Zhang Yimou’s spy thriller Scare Out ($116.2M/786 RmB), fantasy epic Blades of the Guardians ($102.1M/691 RmB), Bonnie Bears: The Hidden Protector ($94.2M/637 RmB) and the Jackie Chan sequel Panda Plan 2 ($25.8M/175 RmB). All figures come from Maoyan.

I Can Only Imagine 2, despite an A+ CinemaScore (just like the first film) and excellent 86% definite recommend, came in at the lower end of its tracking with $8M. And the faith-based demos are present at 51% over 55, and women over 25 at 57%. Go figure. A post-Covid watering down of live-action faith-based audience is a thing (Sound of Freedom and family animated movies completely aside). The Lionsgate/Kingdom Story sequel is playing the Bible Belt track of South, South Central and Midwest with the Penn Cinema 14 in Pennsylvania the highest grossing venue so far for the pic with just over $60k through Saturday. Diversity demos are 65% Caucasian, 21% Latino and Hispanic, 6% Black and 3% Asian American for general audiences.

A24’s U.S. handling of StudioCanal’s Glen Powell movie How to Make a Killing came in at $1.66M on Friday for $3.56M at 1,625 theaters. No CinemaScore or PostTrak scores, but Rotten Tomatoes finally emerged with a 76% audience score versus 47% Rotten critics score. Sorry, these box office figures aren’t good. If there’s any business on the movie, it’s in the West with AMC Lincoln Square the top-grossing location at $16K for this dark comedy. How did a starry project out of A24 go sideways? I understand that story problems were afoot on this lightweight Saltburn (it involves a guy picking off myriad family members) from day one on the set. Glen Powell powered through. A24 took U.S. very early on for $5M. Tested trailers couldn’t save this, so A24 minimized their losses and marketing spend, and here we are with a lower theater count than the wide envisioned. Some critics in L.A. didn’t know there were screenings, and semi-premiere was held a week ago at the Grove on Valentine’s Day (like we didn’t have plans). Onward to PVOD.

Boogeying its way into the North American top 10 is NEON’s Baz Luhrmann-directed doc EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert with $1.4M on Friday and a $3.25M opening at 325 locations with a great $10K theater average. Why so high? Why, Imax screens, of course. Great numbers in Memphis and Knoxville (no shocker there), Los Angeles, NYC, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Chicago to name a few. It’s 95% fresh with critics and 99% with audiences. Viva the King.

Dying is the New Regency made, 20th Century Studios distributed Psycho Killer. Some say the Disney machine doesn’t know how to market a gory movie, but that’s not what it’s about at all. There was nothing to work with here as the pic’s real killer were moviegoers who buried this movie with one star and a deadly 31% definite recommend on PostTrak and 0% with Rotten Tomatoes critics. Nobody likes it! AMC Burbank is the title’s highest grossing location with $6K. At the end, Psycho Killer maimed $1.6M outside the top 10 in the No. 11 spot, $710K came from Friday and previews. I understand 20th’s contract with New Regency, which was carried over from the Fox-Disney merger, is finally expiring at the end of this year.

Final figures as of Sunday:

UPDATED, FRIDAY PM: Sony’s GOAT and Warner Bros/MRC’s Wuthering Heights are currently fighting for No. 1 on what’s suppose to be a slow weekend with $12 million-$14 million apiece. Wuthering Heights will win its second Friday with $4M today at 3,682 theaters, compared with GOAT‘s $3M at 3,863, but Saturday matinees are in favor of the horned one.

On the high-end, the 10-day cumes are looking like just under $60M for the Emerald Fennell feature take of the Emily Brontë classic, while the Sony Pictures Animation movie is looking at $55.2M. As we mentioned, there’s about 16% of K-12 schools still on winter break today, per Comscore.

Lionsgate/Kingdom Story’s I Can Only Imagine 2 is seeing $3.75M today (including $1.8M in previews) at 3,105 locations. The range is still $8M-$10M in third. Still no Rotten Tomatoes reviews or audience scores reported.

Amazon MGM Studios’ second frame of Crime 101 could see $1.7M in its second Friday for a $5M-$6M second weekend and potentially near $25M running cume by EOD Sunday.

In fifth is the fourth weekend of 20th Century Studios’ Send Help at 2,800 sites, with $1M today and $3.7M (off 58%) for the weekend, which would mean a running cume by Sunday of $54.7M.

Outside the top five are A24’s Glen Powell dark comedy How to Make a Killing at 1,625 theaters with around $1.6M today (including last night’s previews) and around $3M for the three days. The StudioCanal pic was financed for a net $15M, with A24 taking U.S. for under $5M. Reviews on RT are at 48% Rotten.

20th Century Studios’ horror movie Psycho Killer is DOA with everyone, with a 0% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 34% with moviegoers. The pic is seeing around $700,000 today (including $250K previews) and around $2M for the weekend at 1,100 sites.

A year ago, the post-Presidents Day weekend came in at $78M, per Box Office Mojo. This weekend is gonna be lower. Again, what a difference a Marvel movie makes, even if it was a lackluster one (read, last year’s Captain America: Brave New World).

PREVIOUSLY, FRIDAY AM: Lionsgate and Kingdom Story’s I Can Only Imagine 2 is off to a solid start for a faith-based movie with $1.8 million previews. Note that $1.3M of that came from early-access screenings on Valentine’s Day, with another $475,000 from last night.

That all-in preview figure is higher than the $1.3M previews of the 2018 original, which had been forecasted to perform in the single digits then wowed with a $17.1M opening and a great 4.9x multiple — good for a final $83.4M domestic off a great A+ Cinemascore. No reviews or Rotten Tomatoes audience scores yet for part two here, which stars Milo Ventimiglia. Forecast is $8M-$10M in 3,105 theaters, but it won’t be a surprise if the picture does more.

In the Andrew Erwin- and Brent Mccorkle-directed sequel, the lead singer of MercyMe, Bart Millard, faces a personal crisis at the peak of his success. As his world unravels, he struggles with his beliefs and inner demons while seeking a path through adversity

Posting a great number last night was Trafalgar’s release of the Prime Original Man on the Run, the Morgan Neville-directed documentary about Paul and Linda McCartney post-Beatles during the Wings era. The pic posted $501K at 421 sites.

After the busy Presidents Day weekend, I Can Only Imagine 2 is the only major studio release bowing that can do any substantial business. A24 has the 1,600-theater release of the StudioCanal-financed How to Make a Killing with Glen Powell, and Disney is releasing New Regency’s Psycho Killer from director Gavin Polone in 1,100 theaters. Both of those titles are expected to file in the low-single digits. Psycho Killer‘s previews, we hear, were around $250K, but no audience or critic scores yet on RT. Reviews are sour on How to Make a Killing at 51% Rotten.

The rest of the week’s grosses are as follows:

1.) Wuthering Heights (WB) 3,682 theaters, Wk $45.8M/Wk 1

2.) Goat (Sony) 3,863 theaters Wk $41.2M/Wk 1

3.) Crime 101 (Sony) 3,161 theaters, Wk $18.9M/Wk 1

4.) Send Help (20th) 2,975 theaters, Wk $12.1M (-7%), Total $51M/Wk 3

5.) Solo Mio (Angel) 3,000 theaters, Wk $8.7M (-17%), Total $19.2M/Wk 2