Theaters have long sounded the call for more movies in their theaters, but success is about variety as well as quality. The box office can’t get back to full strength on tentpoles, horror and family films alone.
That’s why the $353 million global theatrical run of Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid” in December and the $38 million domestic/$83 million global opening of Warner Bros. “Wuthering Heights” this weekend is reason for some hope for movie theaters. Over the course of 2026, Hollywood has assembled a series of movies primarily targeting female audience, catering to a demographic with a level of consistency that hasn’t been seen in a while.
And women are showing up, as evidenced by the 74% opening weekend audience share for “Wuthering Heights” and the 70-72% audience share for Universal’s “Wicked” duology, which combined for $817 million domestic and $1.28 billion worldwide. Even if those musicals are an exception, movies with a similar female supermajority have shown they can play a key supporting role for the market.
“From what we’re seeing, turnout from adult women is strengthening, particularly among Gen Z and millennial audiences who are looking for stories,” said Rob Lehman, COO of Santikos Entertainment. “Now the tables are turning a bit – where the females are saying to their spouse or partner, ‘I saw all those action movies and now it’s your turn to see one of these movies.’”
Not only is Hollywood finding success in making films for and by women, but a steadier clip of these films in theaters is providing exhibitors with a healthier balance sheet. That’s good news for a theatrical industry hoping for a $10 billion domestic year in 2026 and proves that when Hollywood caters to an underserved audience, they more often than not show up.
“We’ve had post-pandemic films for women like ‘Anyone But You’ break out, but there’s rarely another film like it to follow up,” said Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock. “Hollywood is showing that it’s paying attention to an audience that has shown it will show up but hasn’t gotten as many films as they should.”
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Erin Westerman told TheWrap last year, ahead of “The Housemaid” release, that not only are women underserved, but they crave experiences they can share with each other. Putting these kinds of movies in theaters fills that need.
“Their bar is higher and their expectation for what they are served is higher. But I think they are absolutely underserved,” she said. “I think women and girls in general seek out community, and I think finding spaces where they can be communal is important to them.”
While these films won’t bring in the billions that tentpoles like “Avatar: Fire and Ash” or the upcoming “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” gross, they provide the secondary support that prevents the deep box office slumps that have repeatedly hit theaters since the pandemic. And when released on a regular basis, their marketing campaigns are able to build off of each other.
As “The Housemaid” legged out to become Lionsgate’s biggest box office hit in two years, a largely female audience was treated to trailers of “Wuthering Heights” featuring Charli XCX’s original songs for the film, melodramatic and colorful shots of Margot Robbie in the English countryside, and a shot of Jacob Elordi emerging from the fog that became a widely shared image on social media in the leadup to its release this past weekend.
“Statistically, women are on social media more, creating more conversation on social media. Female audiences can drive culture,” Westerman said, her point proving out as video reactions from “Wuthering Heights” flooded Instagram and TikTok this weekend.
Even if the $38 million extended domestic start for “Wuthering Heights” wasn’t the explosive opening of something like “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which debuted to $93 million in 2015, there was once a possibility that the film wouldn’t be in theaters at all. Netflix reportedly made a $150 million offer for the project, which Fennell and Robbie took out to buyers as a package, but the writer/director and star/producer chose Warner Bros.’ $80 million offer because the studio would ensure a full theatrical release with a top-shelf marketing campaign in support.
“The team behind ‘Wuthering Heights’ chose a full theatrical release rather than going straight to streaming, and when studios make that kind of commitment, we’ll match it at Regal with outsized commitment through showtimes, premium formats, and marketing,” Regal Cinemas chief Eduardo Acuna told TheWrap.
And just as “Wuthering Heights” was able to build awareness by running its trailer in front of “The Housemaid,” several spring titles that will serve as tentpole alternatives for women are trying to market off of Emerald Fennell and Margot Robbie‘s tale of romantic tragedy.
These include Warner Bros.’ Jessie Buckley-starring crime thriller “The Bride,” A24’s scandalous dark comedy “The Drama” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, Universal’s exotic locale romcom “You, Me & Tuscany” starring Halle Bailey and Rege-Jean Page and the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation “Reminders of Him,” starring Maika Monroe and Tyriq Withers.
And then there’s the sequel that could bring millennial and Gen X women in droves to kick off the summer: Disney/20th Century’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” The teaser trailer showing the reunion of Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway scored 222 million views in the first 24 hours, ranking among the top 10 ever for a trailer and the highest ever for a 20th Century title, passing the “Avatar” films.
The fact that 20th Century is so confident in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” that it’s opening on May 1, a weekend traditionally earmarked for Marvel movies, speaks volumes.
The range for what each of these films can make at the box office is fairly wide, but at the top end, they can end up ranking among the top 20 highest grossing films of the year. “It Ends With Us,” the film that established Colleen Hoover as Hollywood’s literary adaptation queen, ranked 15th among all domestic releases in 2024 with $148.5 million.
A year later, another Hoover adaptation, Paramount’s “Regretting You,” made a more modest $48.6 million but beat the studio’s male-skewing bomb “The Running Man,” which grossed $37.8 million with more than twice the production budget.
Brooks LeBoeuf, SVP of content at Regal, credited Hoover as a major reason why the film industry is seeing a major resurgence in female-focused wide releases as both “Regretting You” and “It Ends With Us,” just like “Wuthering Heights,” had opening weekend audience shares that exceeded 75% female.
“‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ proved this same dynamic a decade ago, and the ‘Sex and the City’ films did it prior to that,” LeBoeuf said. “When Hollywood creates culturally relevant, event-level films squarely aimed at women, they show up in force. What feels newly energized right now is the Colleen Hoover effect — her titles are helping reassert that adult women are a core theatrical audience when given product made for them.”
If all of the above upcoming films each place somewhere within the $50-150 million domestic range, then the 2026 box office will be off to a sizably better start than the sluggish kick-off to 2025. Through the first four months of last year, only 10 films grossed at least $50 million domestically, including 2024 holiday holdovers “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Mufasa: The Lion King.”
By the end of February, the 2026 box office will have seven films that cross the $50 million mark: four holiday holdovers plus “Wuthering Heights,” 20th Century’s “Send Help” and Sony Animation’s “Goat.” On the tentpole side, Pixar’s “Hoppers,” Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary,” Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and Lionsgate’s “Michael” are all either likely or a lock to pass $100 million, bringing the count to 11.
So if “The Drama,” “You Me & Tuscany” and “Reminders of Him” all can top $50 million, that means that theaters will have 14 films that were substantial contributors to the box office before “Devil Wears Prada 2” kicks off the summer season in earnest. Combine that quantity of moderate hits with the potentially $600 million-plus domestic run that “Super Mario Galaxy” is expected to deliver, and the result is stronger overall totals supported by films that attract a wider swath of moviegoers.
“Variety is always what maintains an audience from year to year, especially when an audience sees that a movie like the one they paid for is coming out next month,” Bock said.
