Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King performed well during the slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, making about $16.5 million over four days. Even though the cartoon prequel has been out for five weeks, it is doing well because new movie releases are not performing as strongly during this normally busy time.
In the last ten years, excluding 2021’s pandemic-affected numbers, the box office is expected to make just $101.2 million from all movies over the long weekend. This is a big drop compared to past years when ticket sales for the holiday weekend often exceeded $200 million.
Two new releases had a hard time becoming popular. One of Them Days, starring SZA and Keke Palmer, is expected to earn between $14 and $15 million, placing it in second place. The film received positive reviews (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) and an A- score from audiences on CinemaScore. However, its opening weekend is still small compared to other comedy successes like Girls Trip, which made $31.2 million in its debut in 2017.
The horror reboot of Wolf Man from Universal and Blumhouse, starring Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott, is also not doing well. The film is expected to make just $12 million throughout the four-day weekend, far less than its original $17 million estimate. Audiences gave it a mixed review and a C-, which hurt its box office performance.
In the meantime, Mufasa: The Lion King is doing well, with only a 13% decrease in attendance compared to last weekend. The realistic prequel will earn over $200 million in the U.S. during the holiday season, making it one of the top 10 releases in North America for 2024.
Industry experts say the weekend’s slow performance was due to a lack of interesting new releases. One analyst said, “This isn’t about audiences skipping theaters over MLK weekend; there’s just nothing they want to see this year.” Past Martin Luther King Jr. weekend successes, like 2020’s Bad Boys for Life, which earned $205.3 million overall, and 2015’s American Sniper, which made $107.2 million in its first weekend, show how profitable the holiday can be with the right movies.
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Sony Pictures Classics’ film I’m Still Here is doing well in a small release, playing in seven New York and Los Angeles theaters. It is expected to earn about $25,000 on average per theater over the four-day weekend. Despite the market slowdown, specialized films are still finding niche audiences thanks to the Golden Globe-winning drama starring Fernanda Torres.
Paramount’s movie, released on September 5, could become more popular if it receives Oscar nods. The highly praised movie, which shows what happened in the ABC sports control room during the 1972 Munich Olympics, still has trouble making money. In a limited release, it is expected to make just $936,000.
The slow beginning of 2024 highlights the difficulties that theaters are experiencing in the first few months of the year. Box office sales won’t improve without big releases until later this year.
