‘Wuthering Heights’ Starts Valentine’s Day Weekend Affair With $3M Previews – Box Office

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros theatrical release of Oscar winner Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights smooched $3M from Thursday previews at 3,000 locations.

Before you comp the movie to the $7M previews for It Ends With Us (which opened to $50M), calm your jets. First that was a summer release. Second, distributione sources are seeing a big pop for moviegoing on Saturday, Valentine’s Day with a natural shift of foot traffic from last night to today, and into tomorrow. Let’s not forget the Monday Presidents Day holiday. The last time Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday was 11 years ago; that’s when Fifty Shades of Grey opened to $93M over 4-days with Kingsman: Secret Service in second place with $41M. I hear that there’s $14M in presales already for Wuthering Heights which is eyeing $40M-$50M over the 4-day holiday in North America. Reviews are fresh for Wuthering Heights, but at 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. It Ends With Us was 55% Rotten with critics, but 87% with moviegoers.

Sony Pictures Animation’s Goat did $1M in Thursday previews starting at 2 p.m. from 3030 locations. The film has earned PostTrak ratings of 5-stars for kids under 12, 4.5-stars from both parents and general. Sony sees $20M for Goat over 4-days, but the town believes that the lack of family product in the marketplace could push the start of the Stephen Curry production higher. Goat is 80% fresh with critics.

Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios’ Chris Hemsworth-Halle Berry-Mark Ruffalo-Barry Keoghan noir Crime 101 made $1M from overall previews, not just last night. The movie is hoping for a $15M 4-day start. The Bart Layton directed movie is 86% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

No Rotten Tomatoes audience scores for all three films.

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