Novocaine leads another painful weekend at the box office

Once again, this was the lowest-grossing weekend so far in 2025.

Novocaine leads another painful weekend at the box office
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With a combined $54.7 million across all films, last weekend was the lowest-grossing weekend at the box office so far in 2025. That would be a bigger deal if it didn’t feel like every weekend was the lowest-grossing weekend at the box office so far in 2025. Major tentpoles like Captain America: Brave New World and long-anticipated auteur fare like Mickey 17 alike have failed to invigorate the sluggish business. Apparently ballooning ticket prices and truncated theatrical windows don’t inspire audiences to shell out $20+ for a movie they know they can most likely watch on their couch a few weeks later. Who knew! 

The folks at Paramount didn’t, or at least they expected better than an $8.7 million return when they shelled out $18 million (before promotion) for Jack Quaid vehicle Novocaine, per Deadline. The thriller about a man who can’t feel pain did open at number one this weekend, but still brought in less than Companion, Quaid’s other film this year, when the sci-fi title opened at number two back in January. As Deadline points out, this weekend didn’t have a major event like the Super Bowl stealing eyeballs and kids were on spring break. That’s a pretty concerning state of affairs.

It also had five (five!) new titles that failed to generate any real momentum. In addition to Novocaine, this weekend also saw the premieres of Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag, animated The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, religious epic The Last Supper, and A24’s Opus. Those films opened at numbers three, five, six, and twelve respectively. Hopefully Disney’s Snow White remake can magic up some money next weekend, but considering how catastrophic its development has been, we’re not holding out hope for that particular wish to come true.

You can check out the full top 10, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, below:

  1. Novocaine, $8,700,000
  2. Mickey 17, $7,510,000
  3. Black Bag, $7,500,000
  4. Captain America: Brave New World, $5,479,000
  5. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, $3,170,000
  6. The Last Supper, $2,825,000
  7. Paddington in Peru, $2,775,000
  8. Dog Man, $2,500,000
  9. The Monkey, $2,465,000
  10. Last Breath, $2,300,000

 
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