Box Office Shocker: Mufasa Claims No. 1 Despite Three New Releases, Keke Palmer's Comedy Movie Beats Universal Monster Remake [Full Chart Update]

UPDATE: 2025/01/19 08:06 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN

Mufasa Stays Strong, Maintaining No. 1 Lead

This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with up-to-date box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.

The domestic box office has seen multiple major upsets, with Mufasa: The Lion King, One of Them Days, and Wolf Man all performing much differently than expected. The Universal Monster remake Wolf Man, which is Leigh Whannell's follow-up to 2020's The Invisible Man, opened over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, on the same day as the new Keke Palmer comedy One of Them Days. The Lion King prequel is the oldest of the trio, as the Mufasa release kicked off back in 2024, the weekend before Christmas.

Per Deadline, as of Sunday morning, Mufasa: The Lion King is projected to close out the holiday weekend with a 4-day domestic total of $15.5 million, which places it at No. 1 for the weekend, beating out every new wide release of 2025. That roster also includes the heist movie sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. However, not counting the time when theaters were closed in 2021, this is the lowest that a No. 1 movie over MLK weekend has been since 1997's Beverly Hills Ninja opened to $12.2 million, which is $24.2 million when adjusted for inflation.

Meanwhile, One of Them Days has defied initial expectations by taking No. 2 with an estimated 4-day gross of $14 million. It has taken the lead over Wolf Man, which is now projected to hit No. 3 with a 4-day debut of $12 million. Below, see the full Top 5 chart for the domestic box office over MLK weekend, including projections for both the traditional 3-day weekend and the 4-day holiday weekend that runs Friday through Monday:

#	Title	3-Day Total	4-Day Total	Cumulative (Domestic)
1	Mufasa: The Lion King	$11.5 million	$15.5 million	$209.7 million (weekend 5)
2	One of Them Days	~$12.5 million	$14 million	$14 million (weekend 1)
3	Wolf Man	$10.55 million	$12 million	$12 million (weekend 1)
4	Sonic the Hedgehog 3	$7.9 million	$10.3 million	$218.1 million (weekend 5)
5	Den of Thieves 2: Pantera	$6.6 million	$7.7 million	$27.3 million (weekend 2)

Mufasa has continued to dominate Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with slow and steady growth after reversing its initial fortunes at the domestic box office. The video game movie took No. 1 over their first two weekends until Mufasa supplanted it at No. 1 during their mutual third weekend. The Lion King prequel has continued to maintain a spot above it on the chart since then. Nevertheless, Sonic is still holding strong, falling from No. 3 to No. 4 with a week-on-week drop of just 30%, likely aided by the impending holiday.

With two new titles in the Top 5, naturally, two holdover hits have had to exit the chart to make room. The first is Disney's Moana 2, which has dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 with an $8.3 million 4-day haul and a week-on-week drop of just 7%. This is the first weekend since it premiered over Thanksgiving that it has been off the Top 5 chart. Meanwhile, Nosferatu, which opened on Christmas Day, has fallen from No. 4 to No. 7 during its fourth weekend in theaters with a $5.1 million 4-day total and a 38% drop.

What This Means For One Of Them Days And Wolf Man

Their Prospects Look Very Different

Early projections showed Wolf Man coming in quite a bit higher than its MLK weekend competition, but it seems entirely possible that One of Them Days reviews have allowed the comedy to triumph over the anticipated horror remake, as the movie's overwhelmingly positive response earned it a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%, which is the best of Keke Palmer's career. Meanwhile, the Whannell movie came out of the gate with a much more mixed reception, earning it a Rotten 53% score.

Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man remake had a much better reception, earning a Certified Fresh score of 91%.

As a result of their debuts, Wolf Man release could struggle to catch up with One of Them Days both in terms of raw numbers and profits. The Keke Palmer movie cost $14 million, meaning that it will make its budget back by the end of the weekend and be well on its way toward its estimated break-even point of $35 million. Wolf Man's slightly higher $25 million budget likely places its break-even point around $62.5 million, which puts it on a rockier road toward profitability, especially considering the fact that horror movies typically have sharp week 2 drops.

Our Take On The Weekend Box Office

2025 Is Struggling To Get Off The Ground

Although the future is looking bright for One of Them Days, the fact that neither it nor Wolf Man could beat Mufasa: The Lion King in its fifth weekend shows that 2025 still has yet to produce a major runaway hit. In fact, this is the third-lowest overall MLK weekend in the past 10 years. As they were the most promising new releases of January, the 2025 box office may have to wait until at least February 14 for a rebound, when the Valentine's Day weekend sees the debut of both Captain America: Brave New World and Paddington in Peru.

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Source: Deadline