‘Novocaine’ Needs Just $8.7 Million Opening to Lead Extremely Poor Box Office

A mid-March weekend at the box office is supposed to be a busy one with spring break beginning and four-quadrant films on offer. But the film industry is in such a terrible slump that Paramount’s R-rated action comedy “Novocaine” was able to take No. 1 with an opening weekend of just $8.7 million.

That’s a decent result for “Novocaine,” which comes with an $18 million price tag and might be able to find some legs among college students on spring break and action movie fans still open to the film’s general concept of a mild-mannered protagonist thrust into an ultraviolent journey that bears similarities to films like “Nobody” and “Love Hurts.” Along with a B on CinemaScore, “Novocaine” earned Rotten Tomatoes scores of 82% critics and 88% audience.

But the overall total for this weekend is expected to come in at an anemic $55 million, similar to the $56.6 million of last weekend. This is not only the lowest weekend of 2025 so far and a 39% year-over-year drop, but it is also the worst overall total seen on a non-pandemic March weekend since March 29, 1996, when the fourth weekend of the MGM comedy “The Birdcage” led the charts to an overall unadjusted $52.6 million total.

Next weekend sees some relief in the form of Disney’s “Snow White,” but that will be limited as the film is expected to open somewhere in the vicinity of the $45.9 million opening of the 2019 remake of “Dumbo,” making it a threat to become a high-profile flop in Disney’s remake series. Despite that, it may be the highest opening weekend between now and the start of the summer blockbuster season in May, unless Warner Bros.’ “Minecraft” and “Sinners” can get some traction.

On this poor weekend, there’s a tight race for the No. 2 spot between Focus Features’ new Steven Soderbergh spy thriller “Black Bag” and the second weekend of Warner Bros.’ Bong Joon-ho satire “Mickey 17.”

“Mickey 17” currently has the edge with an estimated $7.6 million second weekend, though that marks a 60% drop from the film’s $19 million opening weekend. With $33.3 million grossed domestically and around $60 million worldwide so far, “Mickey 17” is going to struggle just to match its $118 million production budget.

It’s not looking much better for “Black Bag” with a $7.5 million start from 2,705 theaters. The film carries a $50 million price tag, and while critics are widely praising the spy film starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, audiences aren’t quite as enthused with a B on CinemaScore and a 71% audience RT score.

Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Brave New World” is in fourth with a $5.5 million fifth weekend. It will pass $400 million worldwide in the coming week, having grossed $185 million domestic and $389 million global so far. But it will fall short of the $476 million global total of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”

Completing the top five is the “Looney Tunes” film “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” which was acquired by indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment from Warner Bros. and has earned $3.1 million from 2,827 theaters. The film was greenlit as a streaming title prior to the 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery merger but was then shopped around after the merger was completed.

Starring Emmy-winning voice actor Eric Bauza as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, “The Day the Earth Blew Up” is the first fully animated “Looney Tunes” feature film released in theaters.

More to come…

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