Jack Quaid’s action-comedy “Novocaine” topped a painfully slow weekend at the box office with $8.7 million. For theater owners, however, there’s not too much to celebrate: It’s one of the worst debuts to still capture the No. 1 spot (at least since the pandemic ground moviegoing to a halt).
Despite five new nationwide releases, this weekend was among the year’s lowest grossing to date with roughly $54 million across all films. The sluggish first quarter has been another blow to the badly bruised movie theater business, which is banking on 2025 to revive the business after COVID and Hollywood’s labor strikes. If that’s the case, there’s no time like the present. Year-to-date revenues are 5% behind 2024 and nearly 38% behind 2019, according to Comscore.
“The industry is getting fed up with these $50 million weekends that have put a drag on the marketplace and now position the 2025 box office behind 2024,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “With Disney’s ‘Snow White’ on deck and ‘Minecraft’ two weeks after, this will likely be the last such weekend in the $50 million range until August. Thank goodness.”
“Novocaine” opened slightly behind projections of $10 million from 3,365 North American theaters. The film also stalled internationally with $1.8 million from 19 markets, though that represents just 25% of its overseas footprint. There’s good news, though — “Novocaine” didn’t cost all that much and audiences mostly liked it. Paramount spent a modest $18 million before marketing, so there’s not too high a threshold for profitability. Meanwhile, “Novocaine” earned a “B” grade on CinemaScore and 81% average on Rotten Tomatoes. Quaid plays an introverted banker with the inability to feel pain, which he uses to his advantage after his dream girl is taken hostage in a heist.
Another newcomer, Steven Soderbergh’s sleek thriller “Black Bag,” struggled to draw crowds despite rave reviews. The R-rated spy drama opened at No. 3 with $7.5 million from 2,705 cinemas. It’s not a bad start since the film is aimed at older audiences, except that Focus Features shelled out $50 million on the production. For “Black Bag” to be worth the investment, it’ll need to become a word-of-mouth hit. International moviegoers may not help too much; “Black Bag” fizzled with $4.2 million from 37 overseas markets for a global tally of $11.7 million. In the film, Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender star as a married couple who work as intelligence agents. When the wife is suspected as a potential mole in the agency, her husband’s loyalty — to his marriage or country — is put to the test.
Meanwhile, A24’s surrealist satire “Opus” cratered in 12th place with $1 million from 1,764 theaters, one of the worst starts ever for a wide release. Critics and audiences panned the film, about a young writer (Ayo Edebiri) who travels to the remote compound of a legendary pop star (John Malkovich) who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago. “Opus” was saddled with a “C+” on CinemaScore and 40% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes. Luckily, the movie was relatively inexpensive, costing under $10 million to produce.
Elsewhere, “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” debuted in fifth place with $3 million from 2,827 locations, while Biblical drama “The Last Supper” was close behind at No. 6 with $2.8 million from 1,575 theaters. Both were backed by indie distributors; Ketchup Entertainment handled “The Day the Earth Blew Up” and Pinnacle Peak Pictures was behind “The Last Supper.”
Last weekend’s champion “Mickey 17” slid to second place with $7.6 million from 3,807 venues, a tragic 60% decline from opening weekend. So far, the dystopian sci-fi comedy from Bong Joon Ho and Robert Pattinson has generated $33.3 million domestically and roughly $90 million globally. That’s a problem because “Mickey 17” cost $118 million to produce and requires around $275 million to $300 million worldwide to get into the black during its big screen run, according to rival executives with knowledge of similar productions.
Disney’s Marvel sequel “Captain America: Brave New World” landed in fourth place with $5.2 million in its fifth weekend on the big screen. The superhero adventure, starring Anthony Mackie, has earned $185 million domestically and $388.6 million worldwide, which is enough to rank as the biggest Hollywood release of the year but isn’t nearly enough to offset its massive $180 million price tag.
As “Captain America: Brave New World” nears the end of its theatrical run, the comic book tentpole is running out of steam as one of the lowest-grossing Marvel movies of all time — above the flat-out disasters of 2023’s “The Marvels” ($207 million) and 2011’s “The Incredible Hulk” ($264 million) but in the realm of disappointments like 2021’s “Eternals” ($402 million) and 2023’s “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($476 million). Marvel has two more movies, “Thunderbolts” on May 2 and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 25, on the calendar in 2025.
