With an effective blitzkrieg marketing campaign, Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is set to top the global box-office this weekend with the title now on track for an $80 million worldwide debut.
The film is coming in along expected levels domestically with a $40 million haul for the four-day holiday weekend after pulling in $3 million in previews and $8 million on Friday. PostTrak indicates the audience was overwhelmingly female and mostly over 25, with groups of women seeing the film far more than dates or couples.
Questions remain about whether walk-up traffic will be affected on Sunday or Monday. Its ‘B’ CinemaScore also isn’t a ringing endorsement and fits in line with the mixed reviews. Overseas, the film is coming in decidedly ahead of expectations with the title earning $40 million – easily beating projections of $30 million.
Sony Animation’s “Goat” is coming in ahead of expectations with the title heading for a $25 million four-day domestic debut, along with an excellent ‘A’ CinemaScore from audiences. It’ll easily take second place.
Not faring so well was the Hemsworth/Berry/Ruffalo crime thriller “Crime 101,” which is coming in just below projections with $3.9 million on Friday (including $1 million in previews) for a four-day domestic start of $13.8 million.
Though critical reviews were fairly positive (if soft), the film landed a ‘B’ CinemaScore, which suggests audiences aren’t warming to this warmed-over Michael Mann homage.
Same is true for Gore Verbinski’s “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” which had the best critics reviews of the weekend but still only managed a ‘B’ CinemaScore. It landed $1.4 million on Friday (including previews) and is set to only take in $4 million for the four-day holiday.
Both “Send Help” and “Solo Mio” are expected to see only small drop offs in their third and second weekends respectively with $9.4 million and $8 million estimated for the holiday weekend.
Despite the glut of titles, the Presidents Day weekend overall box-office at $124.1 million is 32% behind the same weekend last year when Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” debuted.
Source: Deadline
