Bold headline: A Valentine’s Day twist lands early with a $3M preview and a rival contender rattling expectations with a $1M preview for GOAT.
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi lead Wuthering Heights into a strong Thursday preview showing, taking in about $3 million. This literary adaptation marks another bold gamble from Warner Bros. executives Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca, who are backing an auteur project from Emerald Fennell. The film’s release also serves as a crucial test for Robbie in the post-Barbie era. Analysts expect Wuthering Heights to top the long Valentine’s Day/Presidents’ Day weekend with roughly $40–50 million across four days, a healthy start for a title based on a book long associated with older female readers. Warner Bros.’ marketing push targets both traditional fans and younger audiences, including Gen Z and younger Millennials, as reflected in the campaign’s tone and creative.
Warner Bros. and partner MRC reportedly paid around $80 million to acquire the rights, reportedly beating Netflix’s higher bid of about $150 million. Critics are mixed on Fennell’s steamy reimagining of the 1847 Brontë classic, which centers on obsessive love, possession, and doomed passion on the moors as Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw collide.
In a review highlighted by The Hollywood Reporter, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are described as delivering a distinctly non-Gothic Brontë adaptation that stirs both hearts and loins. The film’s holiday timing provides a welcome boost after a slower start to the year for theaters.
Meanwhile, Sony’s animated GOAT, produced by Stephen Curry, is projected to debut at or above $20 million after a $1 million Thursday preview. The film benefits from strong early word-of-mouth and solid reviews, and it adds to Sony Animation’s prestige portfolio, which includes the Spider-Verse series and the cultural hit Kpop Demon Hunters. GOAT follows Will, a small goat with big dreams, who gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a pro-rate sport in a high-energy, full-contact league featuring the planet’s fastest animals. Will faces resistance from teammates but aims to prove that “smalls can ball.” The film is directed by Tyree Dillihay with co-direction by Adam Rosettee, and features a voice cast that includes Gabrielle Union, Nicola Coughlan, Nick Kroll, David Harbour, Jenifer Lewis, Aaron Pierre, Patton Oswalt, Andrew Santino, Bobby Lee, Eduardo Franco, Sherry Cola, Jelly Roll, and Jennifer Hudson, with Curry voicing a giraffe roarball player.
Among critics, Crime 101 from Amazon MGM Studio, directed by Bart Layton, is drawing positive attention, having earned about $1 million in previews. The ensemble crime noir stars Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, and Mark Ruffalo and is projected for a roughly $15 million-plus four-day holiday launch. The film, set in Los Angeles and adapted from Don Winslow’s novella, follows detective Lou Lubesnick as he unravels a sequence of multimillion-dollar jewel heists while pursuing a culprit who adheres to a strict “Crime 101” rulebook. As multiple fates converge, the line between hunter and hunted blurs. Crime 101 is produced by Working Title in collaboration with The Story Factory, RAW, and Wild State. Amazon MGM reportedly paid north of $90 million for the rights. The current Rotten Tomatoes scores place Crime 101 at 86%, Wuthering Heights at 65%, and GOAT at 79%; THR’s review of Crime 101 suggests a more skeptical take than on the other two.
These preview numbers don’t decide a winner, but they give studios a clearer sense of demand as matinee and early-evening showings begin, and as press/advance sales accumulate. Wuthering Heights is seeing especially strong Saturday demand as Valentine’s Day approaches.
Would you rather see a traditional Brontë classic restyled for today’s audiences, or a bold, unconventional take that reinterprets the source material? Share your thoughts in the comments about which path best serves modern storytelling and why.
