{"id":22452,"date":"2026-02-17T00:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22452"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:07:25","slug":"wuthering-heights-climbs-to-number-1-debut-as-women-drive-34-8-million-haul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=22452","title":{"rendered":"‘Wuthering Heights’ climbs to number 1 debut as women drive $34.8 million haul"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Emerald Fennell\u2019s bold reimagining of\u00a0\u201cWuthering Heights\u201d\u00a0brought crowds of women to movie theaters this weekend. The Warner Bros. release topped the\u00a0box office charts\u00a0and nabbed the title for the year\u2019s biggest opening with $34.8 million in ticket sales in its first three days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. According to PostTrak polling, an estimated 76% of those ticket buyers were women. By the end of Monday\u2019s\u00a0Presidents Day holiday, the total could rise to $40 million from its 3,682 locations.<\/p>\n

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The romantic drama starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the star-crossed Catherine and Heathcliff, won out over the weekend\u2019s other newcomers, including the\u00a0animated \u201cGOAT\u201d\u00a0and the\u00a0heist thriller \u201cCrime 101.\u201d\u00a0Its biggest day was Saturday\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day holiday, where it earned $14 million. \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d is also performing even better internationally, where it\u2019s expecting to rake in an additional $42 million from 76 territories.<\/p>\n

The Warner Bros.\/MRC production cost a reported $80 million to produce, not accounting for the millions spent on marketing and promotion. If the four-day totals match the estimates, that makes for a strong $82 million global debut. And the film still has several big openings on the horizon, in Japan and Vietnam on Feb. 27, and in China on March 13.<\/p>\n

The success comes while the future of Warner Bros.\u00a0hangs in the balance, as Paramount\u00a0continues to sweeten\u00a0its hostile takeover bid in hopes of winning out over Netflix. \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d is the studio\u2019s ninth No. 1 opening in a row.<\/p>\n

Fennell\u2019s version of \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d which takes many liberties with\u00a0Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s\u00a0novel, largely divided critics. It\u2019s currently sitting at a mixed 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. While that didn\u2019t dissuade audiences from buying tickets, only 51% of the opening weekend audience said that they would \u201cdefinitely recommend\u201d the film to friends. Moviegoers also gave it a less-than-stellar B CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

The mid-February weekend has hosted big superhero movies on occasion, including \u201cBlack Panther\u201d and \u201cDeadpool,\u201d but a more relevant comparison is\u00a0\u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d\u00a0and its two sequels. The first movie opened to over $85 million, the third to $38.6 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a solid if not record-breaking Presidents Day\/Valentines weekend,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, who heads marketplace trends for Comscore. \u201cBut that was to be expected without an MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGOAT,\u201d an animated Sony release produced by basketball star Stephen Curry, landed in second place with an estimated $26 million from 3,863 locations. It\u2019s projected to bring in another $6 million on Monday, which would bring its four day total to $32 million \u2014 the biggest animated debut since \u201cElemental\u201d in 2023. It also pulled in $15.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $47.6 million.<\/p>\n

The family-friendly film was the only new opener of the weekend to get an A CinemaScore. Sony Pictures Animation was also behind\u00a0\u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/p>\n

In third place, \u201cCrime 101\u201d made an estimated $15.1 million in its first three days. Amazon MGM Studios opened the Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo led Los Angeles-set thriller in 3,161 theaters. It\u2019s expected to pull in about $17.8 million by the end of Monday, but the movie has a long way to go to even hit its production budget, which reportedly exceeded $90 million. Audiences, who were 56% men, also gave \u201cCrime 101\u201d a B CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\u201cSend Help\u201d and \u201cSolo Mio\u201d rounded out the top five with $9 million and $6.4 million, respectively. Further down the charts, at No. 7, was Briarcliff Entertainment\u2019s sci-fi comedy\u00a0\u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d\u00a0starring Sam Rockwell and Haley Lu Richardson. It made an estimated $3.6 million from 1,610 locations.<\/p>\n

The Walt Disney Studios also celebrated a milestone this weekend, becoming the first studio to cross $1 billion at the global box office in 2026, driven almost entirely by \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d but also helped by the continued success of \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d which remains in the top 10 after twelve weekends in theaters.<\/p>\n

The weekend is down significantly from the same weekend last year, when\u00a0\u201cCaptain America: Brave New World\u201d opened, but the pace is starting to pick up and theaters have \u201cScream 7\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a rather slow first quarter,\u201d Dergarabedian said. \u201cBut this could ignite a spark at the box office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top 10 movies by domestic box office<\/h4>\n

With final domestic figures being released Tuesday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cWuthering Heights,\u201d $34.8 million.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cGOAT,\u201d $26 million.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cCrime 101,\u201d $15.1 million.<\/p>\n

4. \u201cSend Help,\u201d $9 million.<\/p>\n

5. \u201cSolo Mio,\u201d $6.4 million.<\/p>\n

6. \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d $3.8 million.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d $3.6 million.<\/p>\n

8. \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d $3.3 million.<\/p>\n

9. \u201cIron Lung,\u201d $3.1 million.<\/p>\n

10. \u201cDracula,\u201d $3 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Wuthering #Heights #climbs #number #debut #women #drive #million #haul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emerald Fennell\u2019s bold reimagi… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[8782,3524,3675,6882,656,3856,10744,913,2401,577,167,13342],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}