Director Emerald Fennell’s steamy “Wuthering Heights” adaptation is poised to rip off the box office’s bodice.
The gothic, R-rated romantic drama is targeting a strong debut of $50 million to $55 million from 3,600 North American theaters over the President’s Day holiday weekend. The remake of Emily Brontë’s novel, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is aiming for another $30 million to $40 million at the international box office. Warner Bros. backed “Wuthering Heights,” which carries an $80 million production budget.
“Wuthering Heights” will tower over several newcomers, including the Steph Curry-produced animated sports adventure “GOAT” and starry heist thriller “Crime 101” led by Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan. “GOAT” is projecting a second-place start with $25 million to $35 million from 3,700 venues over the four-day frame, while “Crime 101” is estimated to earn $15 million to $17 million from 3,000 locations in its extended opening weekend.
“Wuthering Heights” looks to continue a stellar box office streak for Warner Bros. In 2025, the studio fielded an impressive string of hits including “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines” and “Weapons.” This project is Fennell’s third feature film following the Oscar-winning revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman” and ultra-provocative “Saltburn,” which introduced audiences to the concept of drinking dirty bathwater. Set in 18th-century England, “Wuthering Heights” follows the toxic relationship between a high-society woman named Catherine Earnshaw (Robbie) and a pariah whom she calls Heathcliff (Elordi). Reviews from critics have been mixed, with Variety’s Peter Debruge praising Fennell’s erotic take on the text, writing that she “seizes on something passionate in the material that was always there but never made explicit, amplifying what has gone largely unrequited all these years.”
Like the spicy “Fifty Shades” trilogy and rom-coms “Isn’t It Romantic” and “How to Be Single” before it, “Wuthering Heights” is positioned as the de facto choice for women around Valentine’s Day. Meanwhile, “GOAT” is catering to the family crowds, an all-important demographic that has resorted to endless “Zootopia 2” rewatches without any compelling new offerings since Thanksgiving. That leaves “Crime 101” for the boys and men.
“GOAT” was produced by Sony Pictures Animation for $80 million. Directed by Tyree Dillihay, the kid-friendly film follows an anthropomorphic goat who aspires to become the greatest of all time at a basketball-esque sport called roarball. Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre and Jennifer Hudson round out the voice cast. Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman called “GOAT” a “vibrant surprise,” writing that it’s a “highly original […] go-for-your-dream fairy tale that we haven’t seen before.”
“Crime 101,” the latest release from Amazon MGM, cost $90 million to produce. Directed by Bart Layton (“American Animals”), who adapted the screenplay from the novella by “The Power of the Dog” novelist Don Winslow, “Crime 101” stars Hemsworth as an elusive jewel thief who plots high-stake heists across the Los Angeles freeway.
Domestic revenues are 10% ahead of last year’s tally, according to Comscore, although that percentage is expected to shrink by next weekend. That’s because Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” launched to $100 million over the four-day President’s Day weekend in 2025. That’ll put pressure on upcoming releases like “Scream 7,” Pixar’s animated “Hoppers,” director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “Frankenstein” remake “The Bride!” and Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” to continue heating up the box office through winter and into spring.
variety.com
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