Los Angeles, California – The box office faced a sluggish weekend as Jack Quaid’s action-comedy “Novocaine” managed to clinch the top spot with an underwhelming $8.7 million in ticket sales. Despite five new nationwide releases, the total weekend gross only amounted to $45 million, marking one of the lowest-earning weekends of the year so far.
Movie theater owners continue to struggle as the industry grapples with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and labor strikes in Hollywood. Year-to-date revenues are lagging behind previous years with a 5% decrease from 2024 and a staggering 38% decline from 2019, according to data from Comscore.
Senior analyst Paul Dergarabedian expressed concerns over the underperformance of recent weekends, emphasizing the need for a boost in box office numbers. With anticipated releases like Disney’s “Snow White” and “Minecraft” on the horizon, the hope is that upcoming films will revitalize the movie industry.
“Novocaine” fell short of expectations, opening slightly below projected earnings in North American theaters. Despite this, the film garnered positive feedback from audiences, with a respectable “B” grade on CinemaScore and an 81% average on Rotten Tomatoes. The storyline follows an introverted banker who exploits his inability to feel pain to rescue his kidnapped love interest during a heist.
Other new releases, such as Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” and A24’s “Opus,” faced challenges at the box office. While “Black Bag” struggled to attract viewers despite favorable reviews, “Opus” experienced one of the worst wide release debuts in history. The films’ respective performances raise concerns about their profitability and future success in theaters.
Amidst the mix of new releases, previous box office champion “Mickey 17” experienced a significant decline in earnings during its second weekend, underscoring the challenges of sustaining momentum in today’s competitive movie landscape. Similarly, Disney’s Marvel sequel “Captain America: Brave New World,” while ranking as one of the year’s highest-grossing films, is still not meeting the revenue expectations to offset its substantial production costs.
As the film industry navigates through a slow start to the year, the pressure remains high for upcoming releases to draw audiences back to theaters and reinvigorate the box office. Despite the current challenges, industry experts remain hopeful for a resurgence in cinema attendance in the coming months.