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Movie Tuesday: ‘Mufasa’ Returns to No. 1

Much like Simba returned to Pride Rock to reclaim his throne, Mufasa: The Lion King returned to the box office for another victory, earning an estimated $11.7 million over the traditional three-day weekend, and $15.5 million when you factor Martin Luther King Jr. Day into the mix.

Admittedly, that’s not the kind of victory that Mufasa would brag to Rafiki about. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this marked one of the slowest MLK weekends in memory. But still, it puts another hornbill feather in Mufasa’s mane: The film has now earned $209.8 million overall—$81.7 million of which has come in the young new year. That makes Mufasa 2025’s No. 1 movie … but, obviously, we’ve got a long way to go.

One of Them Days isn’t going to shed a ton of tears over its second-place finish. The comedy gave Mufasa all it could handle and finished the four-day extended weekend with $14.2 million. That’s just about what filmmakers spent to create the movie. And with a start like that, it feels like One of them Days could see better days ahead.

On the other hand, Wolf Man started with a whimper. Universal Pictures’ latest attempt to give its classic movie monsters 21st-century bite could only scratch up $12.5 million during the holiday weekend—well behind the $20 million that prognosticators had been expecting. Unless Universal finds its own silver bullet, Wolf Man may prove to be a bit of a dog.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 continued its run in the top five, sprinting to about $11 million. Meanwhile, Moana 2 closed out the top five with an $8.1 million holiday weekend of its own. With that modest take, Moana 2 sailed to a notable milestone: The Disney flick has now earned $1 billion worldwide. Not too shabby for a film that Disney originally slotted to go straight to Disney+.

paul-asay
Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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