This is a terrible holiday weekend. And no, not just for that reason.
Our number one movie—barely—is One of Them Days, however it is only an inch ahead of Mufasa: The Lion King, which has already been declared the winner of the four-day MLK period. Sony gets to enjoy bragging rights for at least an afternoon, but don’t be surprised if the movie that finally tells the origin story of Mufasa’s signature sense of smell ends up having the upper paw once actuals come in tomorrow.
So far, Mufasa has roared its way to $209 million stateside. Not bad considering how eager the press was to prematurely declare it a flop. Worldwide, it’s about to cross $600 million (which is better than Sonic 3, sorry). It should shock no one that Disney is supposedly considering a third entry.
For what it’s worth, I thought One of Them Days had a terribly unfunny trailer (everyone is on “we are in a comedy so we must play everything as broadly as possible” mode), but critics were actually on board with this, so maybe my opinion doesn’t make sense. That’s okay, because other opinions sometimes don’t make sense to me (my mom recently told me “Jake Lloyd’s acting in Jingle All the Way is better than anything he did in The Phantom Menace”; I have yet to forgive her). Anyway, number one or not, Days is still underperforming, but at least it’s doing better than our other newcomer.
Remember what I said about this being a terrible holiday weekend? Well, that’s because a lot of theaters were just empty. Wolf Man had been tracking for a $25-$30 million opening, and even more pessimistic projections had it at $17 million. So it’s bad when I tell you this “remake” could only bark up $10 million. Universal ran a pretty aggressive campaign to get this one out there. What the fuck went wrong?
Hot take alert: I didn’t like 2020’s The Invisible Man (in fact, I kind of hated it), and the numbers for Wolf Man have me wondering if Universal overestimated how much people enjoyed that film. I thought it had some solid trailers, but then I hear “it’s about generational trauma, which is what makes it smart,” and I’m like “no, don’t do that.” Reviews weren’t great (although ComingSoon gave it a very glowing write-up, which makes me curious), so Universal might want to think twice before they give us “Creature From the Black Lagoon, except this time it’s a horny redneck, which makes it biting social commentary.”
But hey, Universal can be happy about Wicked: Part One, which flew past $700 million globally. Fun fact: director Jon M. Chu was also responsible for the live-action Jem and the Holograms movie. No, really. Meanwhile, Moana 2 just won’t go away. It is now in the $1 billion club. Fingers crossed Moana 3 is better than…well, whatever Moana 2 was.
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline (note this is for the four-day weekend, which is why Mufasa is on top):
- Mufasa: The Lion King (Dis) 3,555 (-65) theaters, Fri $2.5M (-13%) Sat $5M Sun $4M, 3-day $11.5M (-19%), 4-day $15.5M, Total $209.7M/Wk 5
- One of Them Days (Sony) 2,675 theaters, Fri $4.3M, 3-day $12M-$12.5M, 4-day $14M/Wk 1
- Wolf Man (Uni) 3,354 theaters, Fri $4.45M Sat $3.7M Sun $2.4M 3-day $10.55M, 4-day $12M/Wk 1
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Par) 3,306 (-276) theaters, Fri $1.72M (-22%) Sat $3.8M Sun $3M 3-day $8.6M (-30%), 4-day $11M, Total $218.8M/Wk 5
- Moana 2 (Dis) 2,825 (-345) theaters, Fri $1.2M (even) Sat $2.6M Sun $2.2M 3-day $6.1M (-7%) 4-day $8.4M Total $445.2M/Wk 8
- Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (LG) 3,008 theaters, Fri $2M (-65%) Sat $2.65M Sun $1.95M 3-day $6.6M (-56%), 4-day $7.7M, Total $27.3M/Wk 2
- Nosferatu (Foc) 2,545 (-537) theaters, Fri $1.2M (-38%) Sat $1.6M Sun $1.4M 3-day $4.3M (-38%), 4-day $5.1M, Total $90.2M/Wk 4
- A Complete Unknown (Sea) 2,500 (-310) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-19%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.1M 3-day $3.79M (-21%) 4-day $4.6MTotal $58.3M, Wk 4
- Wicked (Uni) 2352 (-615) theaters, Fri $820K (-29%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.2M 3-day $3.55M (-31%),4-day $4.56M, Total $465.5M/Wk 9
- Babygirl (A24) 1,460 (-427) theaters, Fri $602K (-30%) Sat $746K Sun $672K 3-day $2M (-30%), 4-day $2.45M Total $25.8M/Wk 4