GOAT Takes Down Wuthering Heights At The Box Office With An Excellent Second Weekend

This week's Friday-to-Sunday stretch was a bit of a wheel-spinner for Hollywood at the box office. Last weekend had the flair of a double holiday – with Valentine's Day and President's Day lined up together – and we are now just a few days removed from the anticipated release of Kevin Williamson's Scream 7, which is expected to be the title that closes out February on top. But stuck in the square middle of that, the last few days in theaters have been slow, resulting in last week's biggest titles remaining in the first two slots of the domestic top 10.

There is one big difference between this weekend and last, however: while Valentine's Day saw Emerald Fennel's Wuthering Heights win the box office crown, it has now slipped into second place thanks to Tyree Dillihay's GOAT seeing its ticket sales experience a relatively small drop compared to how it performed in its debut. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.

GOAT Rises To The Top Of The Box Office Thanks To A Soft Weekend-To-Weekend Drop

As I noted last Sunday following the impressive arrival of GOAT in theaters, animated movies have been huge contributors to the current box office landscape. Just look at Byron Howard and Jared Bush's Zootopia 2, which was the big hit of last Thanksgiving and can still be seen in the chat above occupying ninth place and adding another $2.3 million to its awesome domestic haul (and it looks like it is going to outlast James Cameron's Avatar: Fire And Ash in the Top 10). As much content as there is on television and the internet, audiences of all ages – but especially families – are clearly still appreciating the fun of the big screen experience, and that's again apparent in the strong legs that the new Steph Curry-produced feature.

When the final results came in last week, GOAT earned $27.2 million in its domestic debut, and according to The Numbers, ticket sales have dipped only 38 percent weekend-to-weekend. In the last three days, the Sony Pictures Animation release added $17 million to its total in the region, bringing its earnings to date up to $58.3 million. That now makes it the second highest grossing title of 2026 so far, as it has now officially outpaced Sam Raimi's Send Help – which has made $55.5 million to date and remains in the Top 5 following its late January premiere.

Is it a smash hit? No – but the way things are going these days in the industry, a movie is much better off simmering in the Top 10 versus making a big splash in its debut and then fading fast as the majority of people opt to either skip it or wait until its available for home viewing.

GOAT wasn't an inexpensive movie to produce, as Deadline reports that the pre-marketing and publicity budget being in the $80-90 million range. Fortunately, the film has solid if not exceptional ticket sales overseas giving it a boost. While the animated title is performing better at home than in foreign markets, it's nonetheless attracting attention: to date, it has brought in $44 million from outside the United States and Canada, which brings its global total to date up to $102 million.

The road ahead for may be a bit difficult, as the latest from Pixar, Daniel Chong's Hoppers, is arriving early next month and going to be targeting the exact same core demographic, and when we look back on 2026 for animated features, GOAT's box office may get overlooked compared to other massive titles like Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic's The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Andrew Stanton's Toy Story 5. That being said, the film has nonetheless done a nice job making a bit of a splash here in mid-February.

Losing The Valentine's Day Bump Sees Wuthering Heights Settle For Silver

Unfortunately, while GOAT saw strong weekend-to-weekend numbers unfold across the last three days, the same can't really be said for Wuthering Heights. While there is no question that launching the Margot Robbie-Jacob Elordi film on the big screen in time for Valentine's Day was a great call, the movie is now experiencing the downside of such an approach: now that the holiday is over, interest in the Emily Brontë adaptation seems to be over as well.

It's far from a disastrous slip in the 60-70 percent range, but Wuthering Heights saw its ticket sales slip 57 percent compared to its opening weekend. The film made $14.2 million since Friday, which brings its domestic total to date up to $60 million (which is enough for it to hold claim its title as the biggest film of 2026 so far, but GOAT is nipping at its heels).

Overseas, the gothic story is doing much better than it is at home: so far, foreign markets have seen the film earn $91.7 million, which brings its worldwide gross to date up to $151.7 million.

I Can Only Imagine 2 And How To Make A Killing Fail To Make Much Of An Impression As The Weekend's Biggest New Releases

As for why GOAT and Wuthering Heights remained battling for the top spots, the simple explanation is that none of the new releases from this past Friday failed to make much of an impression.

Andrew Erwin and Brent McCorkle's I Can Only Imagine 2 tried to recreate the success of its 2018 predecessor (which made $17 million when it debuted in theaters and went on to make $85.8 million worldwide), but the film only managed to make $8 million and had to settle for third place. It's a particularly rough performance given that the movie played in over 3,100 locations

John Patton Ford's How To Make A Killing, meanwhile, had a much smaller release, but it failed to crack the Top 5. The new A24 movie features a stellar cast including Glen Powell, Jessica Henwick, Ed Harris, Zach Woods, Topher Grace and Margaret Qualley, but it divided critics to a rather extreme degree and it only earned $3.6 million.

As noted earlier, things should be shaken up in a big way come next Sunday, as not only will Scream 7 be in theaters, but Neon will also be expanding the release of Baz Luhrmann's EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert (which made $3.6 million in the last three days playing in 325 locations). Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend to see how the Top 10 comes together, and check out our 2026 Movie Release Calendar to learn about all of the titles on the way in the coming weeks and months.