‘Wuthering Heights’ Heads to $80M Global Opening

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Warner Bros/MRC’s Wuthering Heights is heading to an $80M opening around the globe. On the foreign side with an expected $40M in 79 territories, that’s slightly ahead of the likes-for-likes start of The Housemaid‘s ($34.8M) in its first foreign weekends. Some rivals believe the Emerald Fennell-directed take of the Emily Brontë novel will fall into the mid $30M range at the end of four days stateside, but the see-saw between domestic and foreign is expected to land at $80M, which is the same exact price that Warners won the Margot Robbie-Jacob Elordi package for over Netflix. Last night was $11M (including $3M previews). Warners sees a path to $40M in four days. The question in North America remains walk-up business and an expansion of the audience as 55% of the audience bought their tickets in advance. Also, men only gave the pic a 39% definite recommend next to 54% women.

Overall CinemaScore is B, which is alright for a sudsy love story: It’s above Fifty Shades of Grey (C+) but a tad lower than 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker and 2018’s Fifty Shades Freed which both notched B+s. Definite recommend with the overall audience is 51% which is OK, but not electric. The best definite recommend came from Elordi fans (13-17) at 60% and Latino and Hispanic audiences at 62%.

It’s going to be a big moviegoing day today. Some of the top grossing Valentine’s Days have fallen on a weekend per Comscore, i.e. 2015 (the last time the holiday fell on a Saturday) owns the record with $95.3M led by Fifty Shades of Grey. Next was 2016 when it fell on a Sunday with Deadpool, all titles that day earning $84.9M, followed by 2009 when the holiday was on a Saturday and the day’s business racked up $83.7M. Last year’s Valentine’s Day fell on a Friday when Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World opened with all movies doing $66.5M; the fifth best ever for a Valentine’s Day at the domestic B.O.

Who has attended Wuthering Heights so far in the states? Women of course at 76%, according to Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak, with women over 25 at 53% and women under 25 at 23%. Fifty-four percent women watched the movie with anywhere from one friend or more. Only 22% came with a date or a hubby. The 18-34 Euphoria set repped 63% of those attending so far. The over 45 crowd only repped 21%. Diversity demos were 58% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic and Latino, Black at 7%, and Asian American at 7%. Thirty-one percent of the audience prefer to watch Elordi and Robbie make out on the biggest, most prestigious screens possible, meaning that was the turnout at Imax and PLF auditoriums.

AMC Lincoln Square in NYC is the top grossing location so far with $56K. Overall, Wuthering Heights is seducing those in the East, South and Mountain regions.

Sony Pictures Animation’s Goat is trotting to a $25M 4-day ($21M 3-day) after $7.1M yesterday plus previews. Of the new stuff, it’s the only movie to get an A Cinemascore. Great exits indicate over-performance potential, i.e. 76% definite recommend for the general audience, kids under 12 96% positive and 59% must see it right away. Female leaning at 51% indicates moms with the 13-17 set the biggest among the general audience at 25% with 18-24 and 25-34 not far behind at 24% apiece. Very diverse audience here at 31% Caucasian, 27% Latino and Hispanic, 26% Black, 9% other/Native American and 7% Asian American.

Goat has PLFs (8% of sales) and 3D (13%); most family fare underperforms on up-charge screens of late. Goat‘s best grazing is in the Mountain, Midwest and South-Central regions with the Regal Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco the pic’s top grossing venue with around $20K.

Amazon MGM Studios Crime 101 arrested $3.9M from 3,161 theaters on Friday (including those $1M previews). 3-day is $11.8M and 4-day is $13.8M. Cinemascore for the noir is B ala last year’s A Working Man and just under the Den of Thieves movies (both B+). Imax and PLFs are repping a quarter of ticket sales so far with best areas of play in the West and South Central. The AMC Grove in LA is the leading single-location gross with just under $20K. A 59% definite recommend and guy leaning at 59%. The best definite recommends came from those 45-54 (74%), those over 55 (73%) and Latino and Hispanic moviegoers (75%). Those under 25 have the weakest definite recommend for the Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry and Barry Keoghan thriller at 33%. The 25-34 set was the biggest demo at 27% with the over 45 crowd at 43%. Couples did go to see the movie at 44%.

Gore Verbinski’s return to the big screen with Constantin/3 Arts/Briarcliff Entertainment’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is on its way to a $4M 4-day at 1,610 locations after $1.4M yesterday which includes $450K previews (previous big 4-day for Briarcliff was 2020’s Honest Thief with $4.3M). B CinemaScore and PostTrak pretty good with 85% positive and a 63% definite recommend. Best areas of play were the West, East and Midwest, with standout markets being Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Phoenix. AMC Grove was the top grossing location at $11,1K on Friday followed closely by the AMC Lincoln Square ($10,1k) and AMC Century City ($9,3k). PLFs are repping 15% of ticket sales. The 18-34 set is showing up at 52%. Diversity demos are 56% Caucasian, 19% Hispanic and Latino, 12% Black, 9% Asia and 4% Native American/other. Constantin funded the pic for around net $20M, shot in South Africa, with Briarcliff taking North America. Gersh and CAA Media Finance repped the sale. The pic has the second-best reviews of Verbinski’s career at 84% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes behind Oscar winner Rango‘s 88%.

The entire Presidents Day weekend looks to come in at $124.1M over four days for all films which is 32% off from a year ago when Captain America: Brave New World led all titles to a 4-day of $181.3M. We always knew this weekend was going to come up short. It’s hard to compete with a Marvel movie, even if it was a lackluster one.

The chart:

FRIDAY PM UPDATE after exclusive: What’s clear this weekend is that Valentine’s Day Saturday is going to be big — the question is how big. The bell-shaped trajectory of the weekend is becoming a hard one for some to forecast. Currently, Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights from Warner Bros/MRC is eyeing $11M-$12M today (that includes Thursday’s previews of $3M) with a 4-day of $40M still a possibility at 3,682 theaters. As is standard with female-skewing titles, this Jacob Elordi-Margot Robbie movie could be frontloaded. The pic has seduced Imax, Dolby Cinema, drive-ins, dine-Ins and premium large-format theaters in regards to bookings, putting ticket upcharges in their favor.

Says ComScore Head of Marketplace Trends Paul Dergarabedian: “Ordinarily, having a holiday fall on the biggest moviegoing day of the week is a negative as most people are out doing something other than going to the movies, for instance on the Fourth of July. However, this year the planets have perfectly aligned to put Valentine’s Day on a Saturday, which makes for the perfect romantic night out. And with Wuthering Heights on the marquee, there could not be a better option.” 

The pic’s social media reach, per RelishMix, stands at 381.2M across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, which is 2½ times above romantic-drama genre norms. That figure is above It Ends with Us‘ 337.4M social media universe at opening weekend, Anyone but You‘s 98.8M and Saltburn‘s 213.9M (who knew that Fennell’s 2023 arthouse movie was that high?). Wuthering stars Robbie and Elordi are off the grid on social, while other cast members are fully activated, with Owen Cooper at 1.1M fans and Alison Oliver at 990K.

RELATED: All The Songs In Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’: Charli xcx’s Soundtrack & More

Charli xcx is a big bullhorn for the motion picture, pushing the pic and her soundtrack to her 9M on Instagram, 5.4M on TikTok and 3.8M on X. She’s working off not just one Moment but two: