Keke Palmer comedy ‘One of Them Days’ and ‘Mufasa’ race for No. 1

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 theatres, according to studio estimates on Sunday, beating Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King by a hair.

One of Them Days cost only $14 million to produce, which it was expected to earn by Monday. The film 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 per cent 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 holiday weekends since 1997.

This image released by Sony Pictures shows, Keke Palmer, left, and SZA in a scene from "One of Those Days "

The Walt Disney Co’s Mufasa was close by in second place with $11.5 million from the weekend, its fifth playing in theatres. 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 theatres.

Writer-director Leigh Whannell’s monster tale starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner did not enter theatres with great reviews. It currently carries a 53 per cent 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 Monday’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.

The Martin Luther King Jr holiday weekend has seen major successes in the past. Dergarabedian noted Bad Boys for Life, which had a three-day opening of $62.5 million in 2020, and American Sniper, which earned $89.3 in its first weekend in wide release in 2016.