‘Wuthering Heights’ Heads for $40 Million 4-Day Box Office Opening
After earning $14 million on Saturday thanks to a Valentine’s Day bump, Warner Bros./MRC/LuckyChap’s “Wuthering Heights” is off to a good start with an estimated 4-day opening weekend of $40 million domestic and $82 million worldwide.
Brought to the big screen through an $80 million deal with director Emerald Fennell and star/producer Margot Robbie, “Wuthering Heights” has gained a lot of social media buzz both from early moviegoers who enjoyed its stylish, steamy take on Emily Bronte’s classic novel and those lambasting its significant departure from the source material.
Audience scores have skewed towards the former with a B on CinemaScore and 3.5/5 on PostTrak, with 51% in the latter poll giving the film the top score of “definite recommend.”
“Wuthering Heights” will now try to keep that energy going over the next few weeks, hoping to bring in wider audiences who want to be part of the conversation. But historically, there’s no examples in the 21st century of a Valentine’s Day romance film earning a 3x multiple domestically, so a domestic run in the range of $100 million is likely the ceiling here.
Overseas could be another story. Back in 2015, the Valentine’s Day smash hit “Fifty Shades of Grey” made 70% of its $569 million global total from international theaters. Widening the scope to Hollywood films aimed at women, and there’s more recent examples like “The Housemaid,” which has made 64% of its $353 million total from international markets, namely Western Europe, Australia and Brazil.
“Wuthering Heights” is seeing similar breakout performances from areas where “Housemaid” did well, namely the United Kingdom where it is topping $10 million on opening weekend, with Italy, Australia, Mexico and Germany rounding out the top five markets. Keep an eye out for those markets in the weeks ahead, as “Heights” may have better chance of legging out there.
Another new film that will need to leg out is Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat,” which is starting to gain traction at the box office after earning $11 million on Saturday and is projected to be the highest grossing film on Presidents Day ahead of “Wuthering Heights” as it earns an estimated $32 million 4-day opening.
If that estimate holds, “Goat” will have the best opening weekend for an original animated film since Pixar’s “Elemental” in June 2023. And like that film, “Goat” will need extensive legs to turn a profit against its reported $80 million budget before marketing. Internationally, the film added $15.6 million through Sunday, giving it a global start of $47 million with 40% of international markets still to play.
The good news is that it has the sterling word-of-mouth to do just that with an A on CinemaScore, 5/5 among families on PostTrak and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 80% critics and 93% audience. The one big challenge is that it only has two more weekends as the freshest family title in theaters before Pixar’s “Hoppers” arrives as competition, so getting families in over the second half of February will be key.
Amazon MGM’s “Crime 101” is third with an estimated $17.3 million 4-day opening. As expected for a “Heat”-style crime thriller releasing on Valentine’s Day weekend, the audience is skewing older and male with 56% men and 61% over the age of 35.
Reception for “Crime 101” is stronger than for “Mercy,” which was a theatrical bust with just $50 million worldwide through four weekends against a reported $60 million budget. But “Crime 101” carries a higher production spend at $90 million, and with a global start of just $29 million, it will face an extremely uphill battle to leg out beyond its core demo.
More to come…
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