If Hollywood is looking to 2025 to reset the movie theater business after a tough five year stretch, it’s not off to the strongest of starts. Original films like “Novocaine,” “Black Bag” and “Mickey 17” are failing to draw sizable crowds, while sequels in once-reliable franchises such as “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Paddington in Peru” are falling drastically short of their predecessors.
Attendance is expected to pick up in spring and into the summer, as “A Minecraft Movie,” “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “Lilo & Stitch” and other blockbuster hopefuls land in theaters. Until then, however, box office revenues are looking dire.
Over the weekend, Paramount’s “Novocaine,” an action comedy starring Jack Quaid as an unlikely hero who can’t feel pain, crumbled in its international box office debut with $1.8 million from 19 markets, though that represents just 25% of its overseas footprint. The film opened to No. 1 in North America with $8.7 million for a global tally of $10.5 million. Luckily, it cost a modest $18 million to produce.
Steven Soderbergh’s well-reviewed spy thriller “Black Bag” also fizzled with $4.2 million from 37 overseas markets. The R-rated movie, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, enjoyed a stronger start at the domestic box office with $7.5 million, bringing its worldwide total to $11.7 million. Focus Features backed the $50 million film, which follows a married couple who work as intelligence agents. Their marriage is put to the test after she’s suspected as a potential mole in the agency.
Among Hollywood releases, “Mickey 17” was the weekend’s top performer with $15.6 million from 70 foreign territories. After two weeks of release, the dystopian sci-fi comedy has amassed $57.2 million overseas and $90.5 million worldwide. Korea is the biggest market with $17.9 million, followed by the United Kingdom with $5.8 million. Those global ticket sales are promising for the original, offbeat film from director Bong Joon Ho and star Robert Pattinson. Yet the Warner Bros. film carries a $118 million price tag, making “Mickey 17” way too expensive to ever turn a profit in its theatrical run.
Those films have more of a challenge in terms of getting people to theaters because they don’t have the benefit of brand familiarity. Yet the goodwill that’s built into long-running properties hasn’t helped Disney’s superhero adventure “Captain America: Brave New World,” which is shaping up to be one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies of all time. The tentpole, starring Anthony Mackie as the eponymous Avenger, added $6 million from 52 overseas markets over the weekend, boosting grosses to $203 million internationally and $388.6 million worldwide.
With those ticket sales, the $180 million-budgeted “Captain America” sequel has outperformed the flat-out disasters of 2023’s “The Marvels” ($207 million) and 2011’s “The Incredible Hulk” ($264 million) but will conclude its theatrical run in the realm of disappointments like 2021’s “Eternals” ($402 million) and 2023’s “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($476 million).
“Paddington in Peru,” also suffering from diminishing returns, collected $2.3 million at the international box office over the weekend. The third entry about the ultra-polite, marmalade-loving bear has generated $142.6 million overseas and $183.7 million worldwide. “Paddington 3,” which was financed by StudioCanal for $90 million, isn’t close to reaching the box office heights of the first two films in the series, 2014’s “Paddington” ($326 million globally) and 2017’s “Paddington 2” ($290 million globally).