On paper, the Valentine's Day / Presidents Day weekend of February 13β17, 2026 looked like a clear victory for prestige cinema. Warner Bros' Wuthering Heights β starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, directed by Emerald Fennell, adapted from one of English literature's most enduring novels β opened to $37.5 million over the four-day holiday weekend and led the North American chart. Sony's animated sports comedy GOAT, about a basketball-playing horned animal, finished second with $35 million over four days.
One week later, the story inverted. GOAT earned $17 million in its second weekend β a decline of just 38% β while Wuthering Heights dropped 57% to $14.2 million. The animated film took No. 1. By the end of week two, GOAT had crossed $100 million worldwide; Wuthering Heights had reached $151 million globally, with international audiences carrying most of the weight.
What happened? And what does this specific dynamic β animated family film outholding prestige adult drama β tell us about where the 2026 US box office is headed?
The Numbers at a Glance
| Metric | GOAT (Sony) | Wuthering Heights (WB) |
|---|---|---|
| Distributor | Sony Pictures Animation | Warner Bros / MRC |
| Director | Glen Keane | Emerald Fennell |
| Rating | PG | R |
| Budget (est.) | $80β90M | $80M |
| Opening Weekend (3-day) | $26M | $32.8M |
| 4-Day Holiday Total | $35M | $37.5M |
| CinemaScore | A | B |
| Week 2 Domestic | $17M (β38%) | $14.2M (β57%) |
| 2-Week Domestic Total | $58.3M | $59.5M |
| Worldwide (2 weeks) | $102.3M | $151.7M |
| UK Total (2 weeks) | Β£10.5M | Β£16.3M |
The CinemaScore Gap Predicted Everything
When Wuthering Heights opened, it posted a B CinemaScore β the audience grade collected on opening night from exiting moviegoers. That number was a quiet alarm bell. In modern box office tracking, a B means the film is working for some audiences but not most. It means word of mouth will be mixed, social sharing will be limited, and the following weekend will see sharper-than-average declines.
GOAT earned an A CinemaScore. Family audiences brought their children, children dragged parents back, and the communal experience of watching an animated film in a theatre delivered exactly what the medium promises. The 38% second-weekend hold is strong by any standard; it signals a film on the trajectory of Sony's best animated performers.
The B vs A gap is not subtle. Historically, films with A CinemaScores lose around 40β50% in their second weekends. Films with B scores typically drop 55β65%. Wuthering Heights landed precisely at the low end of its range. GOAT outperformed the high end of its range, suggesting the film had found an audience that extended beyond opening-weekend curiosity into genuine enthusiasm.
Wuthering Heights: A Film the International Market Rescued
It would be a mistake to frame Wuthering Heights as a disappointment. With $151.7 million worldwide in its first two weekends against an $80 million production budget, the film is well on its way to profitability β but the profit centre is emphatically overseas, not domestic.
The United Kingdom, with Β£16.3 million after two weekends, is by far the film's most enthusiastic market. This makes sense: Wuthering Heights is not just a British novel, it is a Yorkshire novel, and Emerald Fennell's adaptation leans into that geography and emotional heritage in ways that resonate with British audiences far more acutely than with American ones. Italy ($9.4 million) and Australia ($8.3 million) are the next largest markets β both countries where literary adaptations and romantic dramas tend to outperform.
The domestic story is more complicated. The R rating limited the audience ceiling. A gothic romance with explicit undertones and a deliberately slow burn of a narrative is not the kind of film that drives repeat viewings from family groups. In the US, the prestige drama market is real but narrow β and it competes directly against streaming alternatives that offer the same adult-oriented content at home, for free.
GOAT and the Return of the Family Film
The post-pandemic North American box office has repeatedly demonstrated one commercial truth that studios keep relearning: family animation is the most durable genre in theatrical exhibition. You cannot stream a family animated film the way you watch a drama at home, because the theatrical experience of a child seeing their favourite characters on a giant screen β surrounded by other children, responding in real time β is irreplaceable.
Lilo & Stitch (2025), Zootopia 2 (2025), and A Minecraft Movie (2025) were among the year's biggest domestic hits. All three earned well beyond their budgets on the back of long-running holds and repeat business from families. GOAT, with its accessible premise (a goat who plays basketball) and A CinemaScore, is tracking on a similar trajectory. Industry comparison points to Sony's Peter Rabbit (2018), which earned $17.5 million in its second weekend before closing out at $115 million domestic. If GOAT follows that path, it finishes above $100 million domestically β a genuine success.
Wuthering Heights cannot hold like that. It was not designed to. But that asymmetry β prestige opening, family staying power β is one of the defining dynamics of the modern multiplex, and the Presidents Day weekend of 2026 illustrated it perfectly.
What Comes Next
Both films now face competition. Scream 7 opened the following weekend, drawing horror audiences who might otherwise have seen GOAT or Wuthering Heights in their third frames. The theatrical window is compressing: Wuthering Heights, with its mixed word of mouth, will likely land on a premium streaming service within six to eight weeks of release. GOAT, if it holds as family films tend to do, could run well into March.
For the 2026 US box office year-to-date, both films are positive data points. The industry ended 2025 up 7% on the previous year, and the early 2026 results have maintained that momentum. What the GOAT vs Wuthering Heights dynamic reinforces is a familiar truth: in theatrical exhibition, audience enthusiasm ultimately matters more than critical consensus, production pedigree, or star power. The film that people want to see again is the one that wins.