Keke Palmer’s Big Break in Hollywood Arrives with ‘One of Them Days’ Movie

Keke Palmer and SZA star in the buddy comedy One of Them Days, which recently landed on Netflix after a successful run in theaters earlier this year. The movie has achieved notable success, being ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2025 in North America. Surpassing movies featuring stars like Mark Wahlberg and Cate Blanchett, it has grossed $50 million domestically, making it the highest-earning broad comedy of its kind since 2023. Impressively, despite its success, One of Them Days was made on a lower budget compared to other hit films in 2025.

Keke Palmer, known for her breakout role in Akeelah and the Bee, is proving to be a strong draw at the box office. With SZA adding to the film’s appeal, One of Them Days primarily focuses on Palmer’s character, reminiscent of her performance in the acclaimed film Nope from 2022. This movie serves as a delayed follow-up to Nope, with Palmer taking on limited roles in between, including voice acting in an animated feature and a cameo in This Is Me Now… A Love Story starring Jennifer Lopez.

Despite her success on the big screen, Palmer has kept busy with various projects. She has hosted NBC’s game-show revival Password, voiced characters in multiple animated series, and released an album titled Big Boss in 2023. Additionally, Palmer has appeared in commercials for a Monopoly mobile game alongside Chris Pratt and Jason Momoa, showcasing her diverse range of talents. Despite her accomplishments, Palmer approaches her career with caution, staying active in various roles and opportunities. Her versatility in hosting, guest-starring, and judging across different platforms highlights her dedication to her craft.

Her performance in Nope capitalizes on that hustling energy; her character Em is like a more feckless version of Palmer, with less glamorous showbiz connections. Instead of booking sitcoms and MTV hosting, she halfheartedly helps to run a horse-training business that provides the animals for film productions, while also dabbling in costumes and catering. When she and her more taciturn brother OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) work together to capture footage of a UFO, she’s invigorated with a sense of purpose; Palmer makes Em charming, inventive, and a little flaky, complementing Kaluuya’s work perfectly.

The working-it aesthetic is clearly a major part of Palmer’s self-image. One of These Days follows her character Dreux through a series of Los Angeles mishaps as she and her artist roommate Alyssa (SZA) try to recover some stolen rent money for their shabby apartment, pay their strict landlord, and get Dreux to a job interview that could promote her out of waitressing and into management. In a movie full of outsized broad-comedy moments, Palmer has plenty of opportunities to overact, to turn on the kid-star hamminess that’s part of her persona. But in a real flex, some of the biggest laughs in the movie come from her smallest line readings. (“He knew how to clean this whole time,” she mutters after Alyssa’s live-in boyfriend absconds with their rent money and manages to take all of his belongings with him.) She carries the movie with cheerful ease that nonetheless doesn’t deny her character some emotional grounding.

So is this Palmer’s star moment? She’s been beloved for years, and Nope felt like enough of a breakout that Password, et. al, felt like something of a holding pattern. (To be fair, she was supposed to appear in Aziz Ansari’s Being Mortal, which would have been her big-screen follow-up to Nope, but the production was shut down after receiving a harassment complaint due to co-star Bill Murray.) She’s next scheduled to appear in Ansari’s next film; a heist comedy from Tim Story; and the next film from Sorry to Bother You’s Boots Riley.

It’s telling that none of these films are a straight-up mainstream comedy like Days – telling, that is, in terms of how infrequently those movies get made. For years, unadorned comedies provided the box office with a steady stream of stars like Adam Sandler and Melissa McCarthy, folks who might not ascend to Will Smith levels of cross-genre spectacle, but could perform like clockwork on low-cost movies. Palmer has certainly labored to prove herself as a modern multiplatform star – movies! TV! Music! Ads for low-rent mobile games! – but One of Them Days suggests that she could simplify her way into major big-screen stardom.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others.