Let’s hope Valentine’s Day is a romantic one for Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s Wuthering Heights.
Filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s decidedly unconventional literary adaptation of Emily Brontë’s iconic novel is at risk of coming in notably behind expectations at the domestic box office. That would be a blow for Warner Bros. and for Barbie star Robbie as she returns to the big screen in major studio leading role. Still, the studio continues to predict a four-day domestic opening of $40 million over the long Valentine’s Day/Presidents Day holiday weekend.
Rival studios, however, show the female-skewing film coming in between $33 million and $35 million for the four days after posting a Friday opening gross of $13.3 million, including $3 million in previews. While that should be more than enough to top the holiday chart, it falls well short of tracking, which had Wuthering Heights earning closer to $50 million heading into the weekend in North America. (Warners fought this narrative from the beginning). One distribution source elsewhere notes that while presales were strong, walk-up business is a problem.
That, of course, could change as the weekend wears on.
Warners chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca have pulled a rabbit out of the hat more than once in tapping a director who comes more from the auteur side of the aisle (Fennell previously directed Saltburn and A Promising Young Woman), or betting on an original film that others may deem too risky theatrically. Look no further than their current Oscar frontrunner One Battle After Another, from Paul Thomas Anderson; Warners is also home to Ryan Coogler’s fellow Oscar frontrunner Sinners, an original story many questioned before it both succeeded at the box office and picked up the most Academy Award noms ever for an individual film.
While the go-to target audience for Wuthering Heights is older females, the studio’s marketing team also worked hard to seduce Gen Zers and younger Millennials, as reflected by much of the ad campaign. Their efforts paid off. Now the trick will be to get even older females to show up. On Friday, 53 percent of all ticket buyers were between ages 18 and 34, yet the R-rated film was slapped with a B CinemaScore by a demo group the filmmakers assumed would be more sympathetic.
Reviewers are also divided, which prompted a rash of stories last week as the film’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score began dropping (it currently rests at 63 percent). Warners notes the film’s exit scores on PostTrak are much stronger, while the audience ranking on Rotten Tomatoes is 84 percent for Fennell’s reinterpretation of the 1847 Brit-lit classic about obsessive love, possession and doomed passion on the West Yorkshire moors as the worlds of the brooding Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw collide. “Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi Set Hearts and Loins Aquiver in Decidedly Non-Gothic Brontë Adaptation,” headlined David Rooney’s The Hollywood Reporter review.
Warners and partner MRC paid $80 million to pick up global rights to the project, reportedly beating out a far larger offer of $150 million from Netflix.
Overseas, Warners says the movie remains on course to open to $40 million for a global start of $80 million.
Overall, the holiday marquee is a sight for sore eyes in terms of the breadth of offerings after a sluggish start to the year, even if it won’t match the same holiday frame a year ago.
Among the other new holiday movies, Sony Pictures Animation and producer Stephen Curry‘s GOAT is exceeding internal expectations with an estimated second-place opening of $25 million for the four days after earning an A CinemaScore from kids, parents and general audiences, along with near-perfect PostTrak exit scores. To boot, it boasts strong reviews and strong exits (don’t forget that Sony Animation is home to both the Spider-Verse movies and cultural sensation Kpop Demon Hunters).
Inspired by a tale from Curry’s childhood, the original family pic follows Will, a small goat with big dreams (Caleb McLaughlin) who gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball – a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world. Will’s new teammates aren’t thrilled about having a little goat on their roster, but Will is determined to revolutionize the sport and prove once and for all that “smalls can ball.”
Directed by Tyree Dillihay and co-directed by Adam Rosettee, the voice cast 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. (Curry voices the role of a giraffe roarball player.)
But it’s a third new entry is the most appealing so far: Amazon MGM Studioa’ and director Bart Layton’s ensemble crime noir pic Crime 101, which is pacing to come in slightly behind expectations with a four-day holiday debut of $13.8 million domestically launch after earning $2.9 million Friday, including $1 million in previews.
Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo star in the L.A.-set move, based on author Don Winslow’s novella of the same name that follows detective Lou Lubesnick as he attempts to solve a string of multimillion-dollar jewel heists by tracking the perpetrator who follows a strict set of rules known as “Crime 101.” As the fates of the various characters converge, the line between hunter and hunted blurs.
Working Title produced Crime 101 alongside The Story Factory, RAW and Wild State. Amazon MGM paid $90 million-plus for rights to the project.
The film’s current Rotten Tomatoes score is a steady 86 percent, compared to Wuthering Heights‘ 63 percent and 79 percent for GOAT. (THR‘s review of Crime 101 is more skeptical than the others.)
Like GOAT and Wuthering Heights, GOAT begins to roll out overseas this week.
Feb 14, 7:55 a.m.: Updated with Saturday estimates.
This story was originally published Feb. 13 at 11:08 a.m.
Original Article on Hollywood Reporter