The US box office saw a shift at the top this weekend as GOAT climbed to No. 1, overtaking last weekend’s leader Wuthering Heights in a frame marked by steep second-weekend declines and moderate new openings.
Sony’s animated title GOAT grossed $17 million in its second weekend, down 38 percent, bringing its domestic total to $58.3 million. Globally, the film has now crossed approximately $120 million, giving it a stable international cushion even as the domestic market enters a quieter late-February corridor. For a non-holiday animated release, the drop is within normal range, suggesting family audiences remain steady — if not explosive — in their turnout.
By contrast, Wuthering Heights experienced a sharper fall. The Warner Bros. release dropped 57 percent in its second weekend, collecting $14.2 million and pushing its domestic total to $60 million. Worldwide, the film stands at roughly $140 million, but the steep domestic slide signals that its strong opening weekend was heavily front-loaded. Prestige romantic dramas have recently leaned on opening curiosity rather than extended playability, and this frame reinforces that pattern.
The weekend’s only major new wide release, I Can Only Imagine 2, debuted in third place with $8 million from over 3,100 theaters. The faith-based sequel’s opening aligns with genre expectations, as these films often depend less on national hype and more on community-driven attendance. Internationally, the film has had a limited footprint so far, with worldwide earnings currently just above its domestic total. Its real test will be weekday stability rather than weekend expansion.
Beyond the top three, the broader chart reveals a market in transition rather than expansion. Crime 101 fell 59 percent in weekend two, adding $5.7 million for a modest $24.7 million domestic total. Such a drop suggests that early interest did not convert into durable word of mouth. Similarly, Send Help declined 49 percent in its fourth frame, reaching $55.5 million domestically — a solid but unspectacular result for a mid-tier studio release.
One of the more interesting developments came from specialty programming. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert delivered a striking $10,000 per-theater average across just 325 locations, grossing $3.25 million. Event-driven concert releases continue to demonstrate strong localized demand when marketed effectively. Meanwhile, A24’s How to Make a Killing opened with $3.56 million in a mid-sized rollout, suggesting a calculated platform strategy rather than a wide-play gamble.
Deep into its run, Disney’s Zootopia 2 added another $2.3 million in weekend thirteen, lifting its domestic total to $423.9 million and pushing its global tally beyond $1.7 billion. Even with diminished screen counts, the film remains one of the most durable titles of the current cycle, illustrating the continued strength of animated event properties in sustaining long-term revenue.
Overall, the February 20 frame reflects a cooling phase following the MLK holiday corridor. No film currently commands blockbuster-level urgency, and recent releases are experiencing accelerated second-weekend declines. The data suggests a marketplace waiting for its next large-scale catalyst, with holdovers maintaining moderate traction while new entries struggle to create breakout momentum.
If this pattern continues, early 2026 may be defined less by runaway hits and more by steady but fragmented earnings across multiple mid-tier releases — a landscape where consistency outweighs spectacle.
Box office figures are based on studio estimates and data reported by The Numbers. Final totals may shift as updated actuals are released.
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