“GOAT,” an original animated film about an animal who aspires to be a basketball champion, trounced the box office competition in yet another glacial winter weekend.
Heading into the late-February frame, “GOAT” and “Wuthering Heights” were closely contending for the No. 1 spot in North America. However, “GOAT” pulled ahead with $17 million from 3,863 theaters, declining just 36% from its debut. “Wuthering Heights” wasn’t far behind with $14.2 million from 3,682 venues, dropping 57% from its opening weekend. A first-place finish for “GOAT” over the starry gothic romantic drama, featuring A-listers Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, underscores the importance of family films for cinema operators at a time when the box office hasn’t yet regained its pre-pandemic strength. In 2025, PG offerings like “Lilo & Stitch,” “Zootopia 2” and “A Minecraft Movie” showed impressive endurance and ranked among the year’s highest-grossing releases.
Those films towered over three newcomers, including Lionsgate’s faith-based “I Can Only Imagine 2,” Disney’s road-trip thriller “Psycho Killer” and A24’s black comedy “How to Make a Killing” with Glen Powell.
“I Can Only Imagine 2” captured the No. 3 spot with $8 million from 3,105 venues. Those ticket sales are dramatically behind its predecessor, 2018’s surprise hit “I Can Only Imagine,” which ignited to $17 million in North America. And although the sequel was twice as expensive at $18 million, it’s still a modest price tag that won’t be difficult for the studio to recoup during its big-screen run. Plus, audiences awarded the film, a sequel to the story about the musical artist who wrote the best-selling Christian song of all time, a rare “A+” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. The original movie, which also scored an “A+” grade, became a breakout for Lionsgate with $86 million worldwide against a $7 million budget.
“How to Make a Killing” debuted outside the top five — in sixth place with $3.5 million — however, the R-rated comedic thriller is playing on just 1,600 screens. Directed by John Patton Ford (“Emily the Criminal”), the film stars Powell as a man who is disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family and will stop at nothing to reclaim his $28 billion inheritance. There’s no audience score, but critics did not like “How to Make a Killing,” which holds a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes.
At No. 11, “Psycho Killer” cratered with $1.6 million from 1,100 theaters in its first weekend of release. The film, which hails from Disney’s 20th Century and New Regency labels, landed behind “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which earned $1.7 million in its 10th weekend on the big screen. “Psycho Killer,” which doesn’t have an audience score either but was saddled with a 33% Rotten Tomatoes average, cost under $10 million to produce. Directed by Gavin Polone in his feature debut, the movie follows a police officer (Georgina Campbell) on her mission to take down the serial killer known as the Satanic Slasher after he brutally murdered her state trooper husband.
Neon’s concert film “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” debuted well above “Psycho Killer,” in seventh place with $3.2 million, during its limited release on 325 Imax screens. Director Baz Luhrmann crafted the film from never-before-seen footage of the King of Rock and Roll that he discovered while making the 2022 Austin Butler-led “Elvis” biopic.
More to come…
