The first big weekend of the 2026 box office arrives Friday with three major studio movies aimed at three different demos: women, families and guys over 25. However, the tallest of them all is the Jacob Elordi-Margot Robbie pic Wuthering Heights Warner Bros, which is eyeing a $70M-$80M global opening. The Burbank lot won the MRC production for $80M over its (current) potential future parent, Netflix, which offered $150M.
The pic’s release, aptly timed to Elordi’s Best Supporting Oscar nomination for Netflix’s Frankenstein, also reps the first fire-breathing mega-wide studio release for Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell. It will arrive at 3,600 locations stateside with $40M to maybe $50M over the four-day Presidents Day weekend and another $30M from 11,600 screens in 79 territories. In total, 18,000 screens around the world will be showing Elordi’s Heathcliff and Robbie’s Cathy going kissy-kissy in the West Yorkshire moors (the pic was shot in the Yorkshire Dales). The feature take on the Emily Brontë novel will unspool in such major markets as France, Korea, Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and the UK and be boosted further by Imax, Dolby Cinema, drive-Ins, dine-Ins and premium large format theaters ticket upcharges.
RELATED: ‘Wuthering Heights’ Trailer: Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi In Emerald Fennell’s Steamy Adaptation
Lionsgate’s The Housemaid is being looked at as an offshore comp. While that Paul Feig movie — which has made well over $350M around the globe — had a staggered release beginning before Christmas, adding up similar opening weekends to Wuthering Heights, Housemaid opened to $34.8M.
In U.S. tracking, Wuthering Heights is best with women over 25, followed by women under 25 in both unaided awareness –the category whereby those polled cite interest in a movie without being prompted — and first choice. First choice for women over 25 isn’t that far from 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker ($46.6M) and It Ends with Us ($50M). Critics are somewhat in love with Wuthering Heights but not over the moon at 71% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Previews start at 3 p.m. in North America for the R-rated rags-to-riches story about Catherine Earnshaw )Robbie) and her extended love affair with foster brother Heathcliff (Elordi).
RELATED: Emerald Fennell Hopes ‘Wuthering Heights’ Is “This Generation’s ‘Titanic’” & Margot Robbie Says Film Is Not As “Raunchy” As People Expect
‘Goat‘
Sony Pictures Animation
In second will be Sony Pictures Animation’s basketball movie Goat, produced by NBA star Stephen Curry and directed by Tyree Dillihay and co-directed by Adam Rosette. Domestic looks to be around $20M over four days at 3,500 sites. Some rivals believe that the lack of family product since Christmas in addition to the same old-same old Zootopia 2 in the marketplace (going into its 12th weekend) could overindex Goat past its current projection. Currently, the comps are recent original animated movies such as Disney/Pixar’s Elio ($20.8M) and DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys ($23.9M). Reviews are solid at 81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (Elio‘s was 83% certified fresh). The PG-rated movie starts previews at 2 p.m. Thursday.
We heard that previews last weekend in the UK were strong with $1.8M and that 50 markets (60% offshore footprint) this coming weekend abroad could deliver a result in the low-to–mid-teens. Major markets including Germany, Australia and China are going later. The pic’s blurb: A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world. Net production cost before P&A is between $80M-$90M+, per sources.
RELATED: The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office
Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry in ‘Crime 101‘
, 2026. ph: Merrick MortoAmazon MGM Studios/Everett Collection
In third is Amazon MGM Studios’ noir Crime 101 from director Bart Layton based on the Don Winslow novel with around $15M over four days stateside at 3,000 theaters. Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo star in a movie about an elusive thief who is eyeing his final score and encounters a disillusioned insurance broker at her own crossroads. As their paths intertwine, a relentless detective trails them, hoping to thwart the multimillion-dollar heist they are planning. Men over 25 are best in first choice, followed by women over 25. First-choice tracking figures are similar to the Josh Hartnett-starring, M. Night Shyamalan-directed thriller Trap, which opened to $15.5M in summer 2024, and they’re ahead of Focus Features’ Michael Fassbender-Cate Blanchett caper Black Bag ($7.6M opening). Previews start at 4 p.m. Thursday for the R-rated pic.
Crime 101 will open in 7,000 locations internationally across 60 markets repping 85% of the international footprint. Key markets include the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and Japan. The international B.O. comps are such dude meat-and-potato action pics that fare well in Saudi Arabia, Germany, UK, and Spain, read A Working Man and Den of Thieves: Pantera. The movie’s Los Angeles premiere tonight at the United Artists Theatre is a nod to the city where the pic was shot and the iconic 101 Freeway that defines its world.
RELATED: The Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office
Sam Rockwell and Juno Temple in ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’
Briarcliff Entertainment/Everett Collection
Booked at 1,061 U.S./Canada theaters is Briarcliff Entertainment’s pickup of Gore Verbinski’s L.A. sci-fi action comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, with an outlook in the single digits. The distributor acquired the Constantin Film pic starring Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple and Michael Peña before its world premiere at Fantastic Fest. Currently, it’s Verbinski’s most critically acclaimed movie on Rotten Tomatoes at 93% fresh, higher than Rango‘s 88% certified fresh. Logline: A “man from the future” arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
Last year’s President Days weekend at the domestic B.O., led by Disney/Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World, and Sony/StudioCanal’s Paddington in Peru in second, grossed $179.5M over four days for all titles. Despite the bounty we have here this weekend, we could fall short. The top three titles at their best could do $85M altogether over Friday to Monday. Captain America: Brave New World opened to $100M over four days.
Chinese New Year starts February 17, with traditional celebrations lasting 15 days. It’s our understanding that the some of the Middle Kingdom’s local titles will begin their rollouts on Tuesday.
