'One of Them Days' and 'Mufasa' Fight for Top Spot at Box Office

One of Them Days brought laughs to the holiday weekend box office, and just enough green to secure a first place finish Friday to Sunday. But Mufasa: The Lion King could take the lead on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Buddy comedy One of Them Days stars Keke Palmer and SZA. The film earned a projected $11.6 million for the weekend and $14 million over the extended holiday, according to box office tracking company Comscore.

Palmer plays “Dreux” and SZA portrays “Alyssa.” The two are roommates in Los Angeles racing against the clock to avoid eviction after Alyssa’s boyfriend blows their rent money.

The cast also includes Lil Rel Howery, Janelle James, Maude Apatow, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Joshua Neal, Aziza Scott, and Patrick Cage.

Issa Rae produced the Sony Pictures comedy. The film is directed by Lawrence Lamont from a script written by Syreeta Singleton.

One of Them Days received strong reviews from critics and has a stellar 97 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences enjoyed the film and gave it an impressive “A-” CinemaScore.

With such great reviews, the comedy’s middling box office total likely comes down to marketing, and whether the publicity campaign focused enough attention on the film’s core audience — African Americans.

The comedy had a reported production budget of $14 million. So it will make back its budget.

Kathia Woods, a film critic with the Philadelphia Tribune, called the comedy “an endearing and enjoyable escape” in her review. Woods believes there are other reasons more moviegoers didn’t see the film this weekend.

“L.A. is still big as far as box office, and we know what’s going on in Los Angeles right now is horrible. So nobody is thinking about saying, ‘Hey, go see a movie, but your house is on fire.’ We also have some inclement weather in other parts of the country,” Woods said by phone on Sunday.

“It’s also football, with the NFL playoffs. In my hometown of Philadelphia, people are going to be home, or, you know, at the game, or right at the local bar. So I think that also cuts into it, but it would be interesting to see how the movie performs the next weekend, will it have legs? Will it get good word of mouth? Because it got really good reviews, it got a good CinemaScore,” she said.

In comparison to other recent MLK weekend openings, last year’s Mean Girls remake debuted on Jan. 12, 2024, to a 3-day total of $28.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

Bad Boys for Life opened on Jan. 17, 2020 to a weekend total of $60 million, per Box Office Mojo; and Ride Along debuted over MLK weekend in 2014 with $41.5 million.

As for this weekend, One of Them Days just edged out Mufasa, which earned $11.5 million Friday through Sunday, for a second place finish in its fifth week in theaters, Comscore reported.

Overall, this is shaping up to be one of the slowest MLK weekends in years for theaters.

Horror film Wolf Man made a disappointing debut and opened in third place with just $10.5 million for the weekend and an estimated $12 million, when Monday is included. The Blumhouse and Universal reboot had a reported budget of $25 million.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was fourth with a 3-day total of $8.6 million in its fifth weekend of release, and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was fifth with $6.6 million Friday to Sunday.