One Of Them Days Surprises With Box Office Win, As Moana 2 Sails To Huge Global Milestone

[Taylor Swift]

No worries about Keke Palmer and SZA's rent money now!

 

 

 

 

For two weeks in a row now, it was a new release that beat out the big 2024 carryovers to win the box office on a slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. However, it was a bit of a surprise that One of Them Days was the one to do it. The R-rated comedy overperformed to beat Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, which debuted in the No. 3 spot behind Mufasa: The Lion King. Speaking of the sequel to the live-action Disney remake, Barry Jenkins’ film crossed a pretty big milestone this weekend, as did Moana 2.

Last week, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera became the first new release on the 2025 movie calendar to top the box office, but it took a pretty significant dive in Week 2. Check out the full chart below, and then I’ll break down all the numbers.

One of Them Days wins the box office for the weekend of January 17-19, 2025.

TITLE    WEEKEND GROSS    DOMESTIC GROSS    LW    THTRS
1. One of Them Days*    $11,600,000    $11,600,000    N/A    2,675
2. Mufasa: The Lion King    $11,530,000    $205,828,338    2    3,555
3. Wolf Man*    $10,550,000    $10,550,000    N/A    3,354
4. Sonic the Hedgehog 3    $8,600,000    $216,498,000    3    3,306
5. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera    $6,600,000    $26,175,028    1    3,008
6. Moana 2    $6,068,000    $442,798,932    5    2,825
7. Nosferatu    $4,300,000    $89,401,000    4    2,545
8. A Complete Unknown    $3,796,000    $57,575,001    6    2,500
9. Wicked    $3,550,000    $464,512,000    7    2,352
10. Babygirl    $2,021,674    $25,365,389    8    1,460

It Was A Good Day For Keke Palmer And SZA, While Wolf Man Showed More Bark Than Bite

Keke Palmer and SZA’s characters in One of Them Days may have been worried about making rent, but the movie from producer Issa Rae and Insecure writer Syreeta Singleton did not have similar issues regarding cash flow. The Numbers reports that the buddy comedy earned an estimated $11.6 million through the first three days of the long weekend and was projected to reach $14 million by Monday’s end, per Variety. That’s higher than the $8 million-to-$13 million range that had been anticipated.

Critics were all-in on One of Them Days, with our own Sarah El-Mahmoud rating it 3.5 stars out of 5 in the CinemaBlend review. The film holds a 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with an A- on CinemaScore. That means it should continue to attract an audience through word-of-mouth advertising, and I’m optimistic that we’ll see a Week 2 drop on the smaller side. Either way, it’s well on its way to recouping the mere $14 million it took to make.

Wolf Man may have a harder road ahead of it. The movie was estimated to be behind the $12 million projections for the four-day weekend, accumulating $10.6 million from Friday to Sunday. It added $4.8 million in international markets, and with a budget of $25 million before marketing, its Week 2 numbers are going to be a big indicator of whether or not it can make it out of the red.

Critics were mixed on the horror flick (CinemaBlend’s review of Wolf Man by Eric Eisenberg garnered only 2 out of 5 stars), so word-of-mouth may not get as many butts in seats as the other offerings in this week’s Top 10, but there are always people seeking out upcoming horror movies, and again, with its pretty conservative budget, it doesn’t need to be one of the best horror movies of all time to be deemed a success.

Moana looking lovingly back while on water in Moana 2

Moana 2 Crosses $1 Billion In Worldwide Ticket Sales, While Mufasa: The Lion King Passes $200 Million Domestically

It was a big week for Disney sequels, as Moana 2, which has spent eight weekends in the Top 10 and is only now dropping out of the Top 5, crossed into 10-digit territory on the global box office, with a reported $1.012 billion, per Box Office Mojo. That makes it the third 2024 Disney property to break into the billions behind Inside Out 2 ($1.7 billion) and Deadpool & Wolverine ($1.3 billion).