WASHINGTON >> The Keke Palmer buddy comedy “One of Them Days” opened in first place on the North American box office charts on a particularly slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
The R-rated Sony release earned $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, beating Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” by a hair. By the end of today’s holiday, “Mufasa” will have the edge, however.
“One of Them Days” cost only $14 million to produce, which it is expected to earn by today. The very well-reviewed buddy comedy stars Palmer and SZA as friends and roommates scrambling to get money for rent before their landlord evicts them. Notably, it’s the first Black female-led theatrical comedy since “Girls Trip” came out in 2017 and it currently carries a stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the marketplace was also quite weak overall. The total box office for Friday, Saturday and Sunday will add up to less than $80 million, according to data from Comscore, making it one of the worst Martin Luther King Jr. holid
The Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa” was close by in second place with $11.5 million from the weekend, its fifth playing in theaters. Globally, the Barry Jenkins-directed prequel has made $588 million. It even beat a brand-new offering, the Blumhouse horror “Wolf Man,” which debuted in third place with $10.6 million from 3,354 North American theaters.
Writer-director Leigh Whannell’s monster tale starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner did not enter theaters with great reviews. It currently carries a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Blumhouse production and Universal Pictures release cost a reported $25 million to make and is expected to reach $12 million by the close of today’s holiday.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” was in fourth place with $8.6 million and “Den of Thieves 2” rounded out the top five with $6.6 million.
In specialty releases, Brady Corbert’s 215-minute post-war epic “The Brutalist” expanded to 388 screens where it made nearly $2 million over the weekend.