Weekend Box Office: GOAT Comes From Behind to Take Down Wuthering Heights
The underdog sports comedy from Sony Pictures Animation could become the first $100 million grosser of 2026.
Mercy me, but there was a swap at the top of the box office this weekend. Families are potentially creating the first $100 million grosser of the year, while the film once poised to earn that title was knocked back. A Christian rock band story may have made more money, but another King ruled IMAX theaters this weekend.
King of the Crop: GOAT Comes From Behind to Take Down Wuthering Heights
Sony’s animated GOAT leapfrogged Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi this week to take the No. 1 spot with $17 million. That is $58.3 million in 10 days for the family film and the second-highest grossing film of the year so far. Right now it is lining up with Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which had a $15.2 million second weekend and $58.8 million after 10 days. It finished its run with $88.7 million. GOAT should surpass $90 million over that. With one more week before Pixar’s Hoppers hits theaters, GOAT could be over $75 million domestic, and the $100 million watch will be on. So far internationally it has only made $44 million. There have only been three films under the Sony Animation banner to not gross $100 million internationally and they were Surf’s Up (2007), The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), and The Star (2017).
Tales of the top 10: Wuthering Heights Hits $150 Million Worldwide, I Can Only Imagine 2 Debuts at No. 3
Based on early tracking, Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” seemed like it would be a lock to hit $100 million. After a $32.8 million start, its prospects shrunk dramatically. As stated in last week’s column, “no February film since 1992 has grossed less than $16.4 million in weekend two and gone on to reach eight domestic digits.” (So that would apply to GOAT as well.) This weekend, the “adaptation” fell 56.8% to $14.2 million. If the estimate holds, that brings its 10-day total to $60 million. So on the flipside of that statistic, there have only been two movies in February to reach that number in that timeframe and not reach $100 million (Madea Goes to Jail and Bob Marley: One Love). Which one do you put more stock in? One Love had a $16.1 million second weekend and finished with $96 million. Globally, “Wuthering Heights” is at $151 million, so the film is on its way to recoup its costs.
Back in March 2018, Black Panther was enjoying its fifth straight week at No. 1. On that weekend, the reboot of Tomb Raider opened in second place with $23.6 million. In third place was a tale about the Christian rock band MercyMe and what led to the creation of their big hit called I Can Only Imagine. Not only did it open to a solid $17.1 million, but the $7 million production dropped between 20-26% for three straight weeks afterwards and grossed over $83 million domestic. It was the third-highest grossing film that March behind Ready Player One and A Wrinkle In Time, and it was by far the most successful. Eight years later we catch up with the MercyMe story in I Can Only Imagine 2, and the same audience wasn’t quite there, as it grossed $8 million this weekend. Will it have the same kind of legs as the first film did? The sequel cost over 2.5 times more than the first did ($18 million) and is not going to make about a third of its predecessor.
Bart Layton’s Crime 101 got off to a decent start last week. The Amazon/MGM release is certainly making more dough than it would be just sitting on Amazon Prime right now. But a near 60% drop to $5.4 million this weekend gives the film just $24.7 million in 10 days. Back in 1997 in the days before streaming, Clint Eastwood’s February thief film Absolute Power made $9 million in its second weekend and brought its total up to $28.7 million. Ultimately it cleared just north of $50 million, but Crime 101 is looking more in the $35-40 million range. Looking at its $90 million production, that is not enough to get it in the clear during its theatrical run. But how many $200 million streaming productions couldn’t have used an extra 15-20 mil in their pockets, let alone theaters getting another $35 million spent on an R-rated film for adults?
Sam Raimi’s Send Help is spending its fourth week in the top five. After its 0.9% drop over the holiday last weekend, it added another $4.5 million to bring its 24-day total to $55.5 million. While maybe not the most apt comparison, its numbers are similar to The Wedding Ringer from 2015, which had a $4.7 million fourth weekend and was just under $55 million after 24 days and got itself to over $64 million. If next week’s horror film doesn’t take too much away from this, another decent drop should see this finish in the $65-70 million range, making it a winner for 20th Century Studios.
A24’s first wide opening of 2026 is John Patton Ford’s How To Make a Killing, “inspired by” the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Critics were not as kind to this film, as it stands with a 48% on the Tomatometer, much lower than Ford’s debut, Emily the Criminal (93%) with Aubrey Plaza in 2022. Killing has already outgrossed the limited release of that film ($2.15 million) by making $3.5 million. That would have been A24’s sixth-best start of last year, as Materialists, Warfare, Bring Her Back, The Smashing Machine, and Eddington all started higher. Only those first two plus Marty Supreme (which just passed $95 million) grossed more than $20 million for them last year. Killing is unlikely to reach that. It is also star Glen Powell’s lowest opening as a lead to date, lower than even the starts of Devotion ($5.9 million) and Anyone But You ($6 million), the latter of which turned into a big success over the winter holiday of 2023-24. But this $40 million production is unlikely to hit $10 million. A24 also expanded Pillion to 89 theaters, where it grossed $576,000 to bring its total to $1.5 million in 17 days of release.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert had an exclusive release in 325 IMAX theaters this week before Neon releases it in non-IMAX venues next weekend. For the effort, fans spent $3.2 million on the King, which was pieced together by Baz Luhrmann. Neon added just 19 theaters to the run of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie this week and it grossed $550,800 for a total of $2.4 million. The $10,000 per-theater average was the highest in the top 10 this week. Kevin James’ film Solo Mio continues to have a decent run for Angel Studios. Another $2.5 million puts the film nearly at $22 million in 17 days. It is now their fourth-highest grossing movie behind Sound of Freedom, David, and The King of Kings.
Zootopia 2 opened three weeks before Avatar: Fire and Ash and will have spent more time in the top 10. The first film lasted 13 weeks in the top 10, and that is where the sequel is right now. Avatar: The Way of Water and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish were the last films from 2002-23 to last this long, with Avatar Deux holding on for 15 weeks. The bigger news is that, by making $2.3 million this weekend, the sequel is less than 24 hours away from passing A Minecraft Movie to become the 2025 domestic champ as well as the global one. Avatar: Fire and Ash, meanwhile, rounds out the top 10 with $1.8 million and is just shy of $400 million domestic, which it will surpass this week. Globally it has made $1.474 billion for 16th all time and less than $21 million away from Top Gun: Maverick for 15th. Zootopia 2 is at $1.849 billion for ninth place.
Beyond the Top 10: Psycho Killer Isn’t Much of a Threat
20th Century Studios “release” of Psycho Killer occurred in 1,100 theaters this week. Barely any publicity for it. Not screened for critics and currently sitting at a dismal 8% on the Tomatometer. Not the kind of thing you might expect for a film from the writer of Se7en. The directorial debut of longtime producer and manager of Larry David, Gavin Polone, made just $1.6 million this weekend. Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die fell over 50% down to $1.5 million, bringing its total to $6.5 million. His last film, A Cure for Wellness, ended its theatrical run with $8.1 million. Midwinter Break (which some of us were not even aware was a release until last week) with Lesley Manville and Ciaran Hinds made $530,000 in 808 theaters.
On the Vine: Scream 7 Offers Bloody Thrills
Speaking of films not screening for critics, Scream 7 is the big release for next week. A first for the franchise, director Kevin Williamson is clearly not inspiring much confidence in the final cut, but expect it to rule the box office for at least a week. It only needs to gross $89 million worldwide for it to officially become a billion-dollar franchise.
Full List of Box Office Results: February 20-22, 2026
- GOAT – $17.0 million ($58.3 million total)
- “Wuthering Heights” – $14.2 million ($60.0 million total)
- I Can Only Imagine 2 – $8.0 million ($8.0 million total)
- Crime 101 – $5.7 million ($24.7 million total)
- Send Help – $4.5 million ($55.5 million total)
- How To Make a Killing – $3.5 million ($3.5 million total)
- EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert – $3.2 million ($3.2 million total)
- Solo Mio – $2.5 million ($21.8 million total)
- Zootopia 2 – $2.3 million ($423.9 million total)
- Avatar: Fire and Ash – $1.8 million ($399.4 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Sony Pictures Releasing
