The Keke Palmer buddy comedy film “One of Them Days” topped the North American box office charts over the slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The R-rated movie, distributed by Sony, brought in $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, narrowly surpassing Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Despite this, “Mufasa” is expected to take the lead by the end of the holiday on Monday.
Costing just $14 million to produce, “One of Them Days” is projected to break even by Monday. The well-received comedy follows Palmer and SZA as friends and roommates striving to make rent before being evicted. Notably, it marks the first Black female-led theatrical comedy since 2017’s “Girls Trip” and currently boasts an impressive 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the overall box office performance for the weekend was lackluster, with total earnings totaling less than $80 million, one of the weakest Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekends in years. Despite this, industry experts like Paul Dergarabedian from Comscore see individual successes within the low-grossing weekend.
In the second spot was Disney’s “Mufasa,” which grossed $11.5 million over the weekend, bringing its global earnings to $588 million. Meanwhile, the new release “Wolf Man” from Blumhouse opened in third place with $10.6 million.
Specialty releases included Brady Corbert’s post-war epic “The Brutalist,” which expanded to 388 screens and earned nearly $2 million. A24 also re-released “Sing Sing,” allowing over 1 million incarcerated individuals in 46 states to view the film.
Looking ahead, the box office is anticipated to pick up steam with upcoming releases like “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Paddington in Peru” slated for February.
In the latest box office rankings, the top three films raked in impressive earnings. Topping the charts is the mystery thriller “e Unknown” with a staggering $3.8 million in ticket sales. Following closely behind is the popular musical “Wicked” bringing in $3.6 million, while the heartwarming drama “Babygirl” rounds out the top three with a solid $2 million at the box office.
