Wuthering Heights Movie Dominates Valentine’s Day Weekend as GOAT and Crime 101 Crowd the Box Office

The Wuthering Heights movie has arrived as the defining Valentine’s Day weekend release of 2026, turning a classic gothic romance into a major multiplex event. The new adaptation, directed by Emerald Fennell and led by Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, opened February 13, 2026 ET and surged to the top of the holiday frame, outpacing an unusually strong pair of newcomers: the animated GOAT and the crime thriller Crime 101.

The result is a rare three-way weekend where audiences split along clear lines: couples and literary-curious viewers for Wuthering Heights, families for GOAT, and adult thriller fans for Crime 101.

Wuthering Heights 2026: a book adaptation built for a modern Valentine’s Day movie slot

Wuthering Heights has always been a polarizing book, and that’s part of its enduring power. It isn’t a neat love story; it’s obsession, class friction, and emotional violence dressed in stormy moors. That makes it a risky “date night” proposition on paper, but a smart one in practice when a studio packages it as prestige spectacle with two highly recognizable leads.

Emerald Fennell’s presence signals intent: this is not a museum-piece adaptation. The marketing push and the opening-weekend scale suggest a strategy aimed at making “literary” feel like must-see pop culture. Casting Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie does more than sell tickets; it reframes the story for a younger audience that may know the title more as a meme, a classroom assignment, or a shorthand for toxic romance than as a book they’ve recently read.

That tension between “Wuthering Heights book” expectations and a modern, glossy movie presentation is exactly what creates conversation. Conversation sells second-week tickets.

GOAT movie and goat: why an original animated contender matters right now

GOAT, the animated sports comedy built around a determined goat chasing greatness, landed in the same holiday corridor and performed strongly out of the gate. That matters because original animated films are harder to open big when franchises dominate family scheduling. A holiday weekend helps, but the bigger factor is clarity: GOAT tells families exactly what it is in one sentence, and it offers a high-energy, sports-adjacent hook that plays well in group outings.

Behind the headline, GOAT also reflects a broader industry incentive: test new characters and worlds that can be extended into sequels, series, and merchandise without relying on decades-old intellectual property. If the film holds during school-week matinees and weekend repeat viewings, it becomes the stealth winner of the month even without taking first place.

Crime 101 movie: the adult-thriller lane is back in theaters

Crime 101 arrived as the counterprogramming option: a sleek, star-driven crime story designed for audiences who want something sharper than romance and less noisy than animation. Its box-office role is strategic. Studios have been trying to rebuild the habit of seeing mid-budget adult films in theaters, and holiday weekends give those films visibility alongside bigger tentpoles.

If Crime 101 plays well in the second weekend, it will signal that the “grown-up thriller” lane can still be commercially viable when positioned as an event rather than something to catch later at home.

What’s behind the headline: incentives, stakeholders, and why these releases clustered together

This weekend’s crowded slate is not an accident.

Incentives driving the pile-up:

• Studios want the Valentine’s Day plus long-weekend corridor because it can lift totals beyond a normal February opening.

• Theaters want variety to maximize ticket sales across demographics instead of betting on a single audience.

• Stars and filmmakers want a loud debut window that triggers cultural coverage, awards positioning, and long-tail viewership.

Stakeholders with leverage:

• Theater chains, which decide premium screen allocations and showtimes that can make or break the second weekend.

• Marketing teams, which can pivot quickly based on what audiences respond to most.

• Fans, whose online sentiment increasingly dictates whether a film becomes a must-see or a “wait for later” title.

What we still don’t know about Wuthering Heights, withering heights searches, and audience reaction

The early weekend tells you what opened well, not what will endure. The missing pieces to watch over the next seven to ten days:

• Whether Wuthering Heights converts curiosity into repeat viewings or drops sharply after opening.

• Whether “withering heights” misspelling searches turn into actual ticket sales or remain a social-media curiosity.

• Whether GOAT holds strongly on weekdays, the true test of family appeal.

• Whether Crime 101 builds momentum through word-of-mouth among adults who often attend later in a run.

What happens next: 5 realistic scenarios with clear triggers

1. Wuthering Heights stays on top through the next weekend if couples and friend groups keep treating it as the default date-night pick.

2. GOAT becomes the endurance champ if weekday matinees stay busy and families return for repeat trips.

3. Crime 101 overperforms later if adult audiences adopt it as the “smart choice” after the holiday rush.

4. Wuthering Heights faces a sharper-than-expected drop if the adaptation sparks more debate than affection among general audiences.

5. Premium screen reshuffles accelerate if one title shows notably stronger per-show attendance by midweek.

The big takeaway is simple: this is not just a Wuthering Heights movie moment. It’s a snapshot of a market trying to serve three audiences at once, and Valentine’s Day weekend in 2026 may be remembered less for a single winner than for how clearly it separated what people wanted from the movies that week.