Valentine's Day weekend in 2025 was different than most years. While the love-centric holiday typically sees studios drop some romance in theaters for audiences, Marvel Studios opted to use the three-day stretch to debut Julius Onah's Captain America: Brave New World into wide release. In 2026, things returned to a bit of "normalcy" with the the arrival of Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights – and while the ticket sales aren't nearly as robust as they were 12 months ago, the new Margot Robbie/Jacob Elordi film still managed to dominate the domestic market.
Even beyond the new #1 movie, however, there were some notable developments in the last three days, as the entire Top 3 is brand new, and Sam Raimi's Send Help successfully pulled off a minimal one percent weekend-to-weekend drop during its third Friday-to-Sunday in release. You can check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Wuthering Heights* | $34,800,000 | $34,800,000 | N/A | 3,682 |
2. GOAT* | $26,000,000 | $26,000,000 | N/A | 3,863 |
3. Crime 101* | $15,136,000 | $15,136,000 | N/A | 3,161 |
4. Send Help | $8,968,000 | $47,898,525 | 1 | 2,975 |
5. Solo Mio | $6,800,000 | $17,332,356 | 2 | 3,000 |
6. Zootopia 2 | $3,760,000 | $419,371,739 | 6 | 2,200 |
7. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die* | $3,620,000 | $3,620,000 | N/A | 1,610 |
8. Iron Lung | $3,450,000 | $37,549,110 | 3 | 2,445 |
9. Avatar: Fire And Ash | $3,328,000 | $396,094,244 | 8 | 1,650 |
10. Dracula | $3,000,932 | $9,001,471 | 5 | 1,787 |
Wuthering Heights Easily Takes #1 Despite Mixed Buzz
Wuthering Heights arrived in theaters in a strange place this weekend. The movie – advertised as a lusty, sweaty big screen experience – registered as an ideal fit for the holiday (some may remember that Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades Of Grey pulled a nearly identical marketing move back in 2015), and there was a lot of confidence in the star power of its two leads in combination with the track record of the writer/director. The big wrench in the gears going into Friday was that the film got a rather lukewarm reception from critics (CinemaBlend's Sarah El-Mahmoud gave it three stars in her review), and it created questions about how the buzz would impact box office.
Now the early results are in, and per The Numbers, and like the early response, they register as a mixed bag. The movie earned $34.8 million in the last three days, which was more than enough to win the domestic box office crown, but it's also notably lower than the $40 million that prognosticators across the industry expected from the three-day gross (I'll also add that it pales in comparison to the aforementioned Fifty Shades of Grey, which was ripped by critics but still made $85.2 million in its premiere).
As far as Emerald Fennell-directed movies go, the film is already far bigger than both 2023's Saltburn and 2020's Promising Young Woman, which respectively made $21 million and $18.9 million worldwide, and it's performing well by the standards of Margot Robbie's filmography as well. She hasn't always found box office success with projects beyond big franchise titles – with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood being the big exception – and Wuthering Heights is already doing much better than Damien Chazelle's Babylon, David O. Russell's Amsterdam and Kogonada's A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
It's actually the biggest domestic debut of 2026 so far, though that is not a title that it is likely going to hold on to for very long.
Looking beyond the domestic market, Wuthering Height's performance abroad is helping to supplement the smaller-than-expected numbers at home. Foreign ticket sales hit $42 million, which means that the film has grossed $76.8 million so far – which puts the results on the higher end of the $70-80 million range that Deadline predicted going into the weekend.
But will the film be able to create momentum in the coming weeks? That's an open question, and not just because it won't have the Valentine's Day bump as it plays through late February. One bit of trouble to pay attention to is the result from CinemaScore surveys, which saw Wuthering Heights earn a pedestrian "B" grade. Between that response and the lack of enthusiasm from professional critics, we may be seeing a formula develop for a sizable drop-off in second week ticket sales.
GOAT Maintains The Strong Trend For Animation, While Crime 101 Settles For Third Place With An Unimpressive Debut Despite Its Star Power
It wasn't just Wuthering Heights that saw some solid numbers this weekend; when accounting for all of the titles currently playing on the big screen across the country, the last three days saw the highest earnings for cinemas since the very first weekend of the year (when James Cameron's Avatar: Fire And Ash was right in the middle of its box office dominance).
One of the biggest contributors to this total was Tyree Dillihay's GOAT – which was never expected to top Wuthering Heights on the domestic chart but still didn't quite well anyway. Family movies continue to do better than most on the big screen (note that Jared Bush and Byron Howard's Zootopia 2 is still ranked sixth on the chart up top), and the new basketball-themed release from Sony Pictures Animation further solidifies the trend. In addition to making $26 million domestically in the last few days, it has also made $15 million from markets outside of the United States and Canada, bringing its global total so far up to $41.6 million.
Much less impressive is the performance by Bart Layton's Crime 101 – though I suppose an eight figure opening weekend result for an adult drama isn't something to totally dismiss in today's world. It would be a lot better if its production didn't carry a $90 million price tag (per Variety). The crime film, with an impressive cast including Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte, and Mark Ruffalo, made $12 million abroad to go with the $15.1 million earned domestically, and it got strong marks from critics.
Despite Enhanced Competition, Send Help Holds Firm With Another Strong Weekend
To close out this weekend's box office report, I also want to shine a quick spotlight on Send Help – which hasn't been putting up blockbuster numbers, but has appropriately been a tough survivor in cinemas since arriving at the end of last month. In last Sunday's column, I pointed to the movie having a healthy 53 percent weekend-to-weekend drop following its debut (going from $19.1 million to $9 million earned), and it made almost the exact same amount the last three days despite hefty competition from new releases. Thus far, the film has made $72.1 million worldwide, and it continues to demonstrate a hunger from audience for more original horror.
How will all of these titles fare next week when the collection of fresh arrivals includes John Patton Ford's How To Make A Killing, Andrew Erwin and Brent McCorkle's I Can Only Imagine 2, Gavin Polone's Psycho Killer, and Polly Findlay's Midwinter Break? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to scope out the results.
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