Horrendously Slow Weekend Too Close To Call With ‘Novocaine’ & ‘Mickey 17’ Each At $8M – Box Office

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Wait, wasn’t the impact from the strikes last year?

If 2025 is going to be known for anything, it’s which weekend is the lowest at the box office. With Paramount’s new wide entry Novocaine and Warner Bros’ Mickey 17 doing about $8M each (many believe the Jack Quaid movie has the edge), this weekend could go down as indeed the lowest; bottoming under Super Bowl weekend’s Feb 7-9 frame with $55.8M per Comscore.

So far there’s been three weekends to date in 2025 where all movies grossed under $57M. And get this, we’re already in spring break! Comscore says a third of all colleges are on break today with 24% K-12 schools off, those numbers holding firm to Monday. This is just awful for the entire industry.

The ray of sunshine is that Novocaine‘s exits are solid. The movie did well in the late night showtimes, so hopefully there’s some spring later tonight. It’s booked at 3,365 locations. Ten-day right now on Mickey 17 is $33.7M. Right now, the pic’s second frame is -57% at 3,807 sites.

Third goes to Focus Features’ Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag which is seeing a $2.5M Friday and 3-day of $6M at 2,705 theaters. It’s a word-of-mouth movie I’m told. Conclave by comparison opened to $6.6M 1,753 and played to a near 5x multiple. That’s hope here for the Michael Fassbender-Cate Blanchett spy pic.

The rest, may they not rest in peace, are as follows:

4.) Captain America: Brave New World (Dis) 3,250 theaters, Fri $1.5M, 3-day $5.3M (-37%), Total $185.2M/Wk 5

5.) Paddington in Peru (Sony) 2,489 theaters, $800K, 3-day $2.9M (-22%), Total $41.4M/Wk 5

6.) Looney Tunes...(Falling Forward) 2,827 theaters, Fri $750K, 3-day $2.15M/Wk 1

7.) The Last Supper (Pinnacle Peak Pictures) 1,575 theaters, Fri $725K, 3-day $2M/Wk 1
What’s Last Supper? Here’s the trailer:

8.) Opus (A24) 1,764 theaters, $600K, 3-day $1.5M/Wk 1
The John Malkovich-Ayo Edebiri movie grossed $150K in previews last night.

FRIDAY AM: Paramount’s Novocaine made $1.75 million in previews Thursday — a total that only from from last night but also advance screenings from last weekend.

The R-rated action comedy might lead the box office this weekend with anywhere from $8M-$12M, potentially unseating Warner Bros’ $118M Bong Joon Ho sci-fi movie Mickey 17, which is expected to fall 55%-60% with $9M to $10M. PostTrak audiences gave Novocaine 4 1/2 stars and a 59% definite recommend last night; exits any studio has to take seriously. The 18-34 crowd showed up at 79%.

Novocaine was a negative pick-up that cost Paramount around $18M, which is the cost of the movie.

Mickey 17 ends the week with $25.8M, and made $1.2M yesterday, off 17% from Wednesday. The biggest weekday for the Robert Pattinson movie was Tuesday with $2.5M. Mickey 17 will have PLFs and Imax this weekend.

Novocaine, which stars The Boys’ Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder and Veep‘s Matt Walsh, follows a guy incapable of feeling physical pain who turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue the girl of his dreams when she is kidnapped.

There’s another Steven Soderbergh movie on the marquee, and that’s Focus Features’ $50M spy movie Black Bag with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, which collected $850,000 from Thursday previews and early-access screenings at 2,250 locations. Critics love it at 97% certified fresh and the RT audience score is at 79%. However, the movie is expected to do in the high-single-digits as it’s aimed at older adults; the over 35 set repped 52% last night in PostTrak exits. Written by David Koepp, Black Bag follows intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his beloved wife Kathryn. When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.

Black Bag‘s previews are less than the $1M racked up by Focus Features’ most recent adult thriller, Last Breath, which went on to open to $7.8M over the February 28-March 2 weekend.

Falling Forward Films and Ketchup Entertainment have the Warner Bros Animation movie they rescued — not Coyote Vs. Acme but Looney Tunes: The Day The Earth Blew Up. It’s booked at 2,827 theaters, and expected to do in the single digits. Previews last night made $250K.

A24 has its John Malkovich-Ayo Edebiri-Juliette Lewis Midsommar-like horror comedy Opus booked at 1,700 theaters. It’s expected to do in the low single digits. The feature directorial debut of former GQ editor Mark Anthony Green follows a young journalist (Edebiri) who along with her boss is invited to the desert compound of a reclusive aging rock star legend (Malkovich) who lives with this cult. Chaos ensues. Critics didn’t like it at 39% Rotten, but I did. Opus cost less than $10M in net production cost before P&A.

Says tracking service Quorum about this weekend of many wide entries, some of which might not crack $10M: “You have to give Paramount credit for supporting Novocaine with a spot during the Super Bowl, among other things. Sadly, tracking has been muted, with neither awareness nor interest reaching 40%. Black Bag has reached 40% interest; however, far fewer people know it exists. Awareness is only at 27%. Also, opening this weekend is Opus, which stalled at 16% awareness. It’s hard to generate a big opening when few people know the film exists.”