Yahoo Lifestyle Box Office: Jack Quaid’s ‘Novocaine’ Leads Painfully Slow Weekend With $8.7 Million Debut
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. This 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.
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“Novocaine” opened behind projections of $10 million to $12 million from 3,365 North American theaters. There’s good news, though — the film 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 million from 2,705 cinemas. It’s not a bad start for a movie aimed at older audiences, except that Focus Features shelled out $50 million on the film. For “Black Bag” to be worth the investment, it’ll need to become a word-of-mouth hit. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender star as a married couple who work as intelligence agents. When wife is suspected of betraying the nation, 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, which was saddled with a “C+” on CinemaScore and 40% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes. Luckily, it cost under $10 million to produce. Edebiri, of “The Bear” and “Bottoms” fame, plays a young writer who travels to the remote compound of a legendary pop star (John Malkovich) who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago.
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.
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 $60 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.
More to come…
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