With Novocaine and Black Bag now in theaters, their box office performances and audience reception have become key industry discussions. Novocaine secured the top spot with a modest opening, while Black Bag tied for second place alongside Mickey 17. Despite multiple new releases, this weekend seemingly marked the lowest-grossing of the year, highlighting ongoing challenges for theaters amid a lack of major tentpole films.
Novocaine starts on top despite a slow box office opening
Paramount’s Novocaine led the domestic box office with an $8.7 million opening across 3,365 theaters.
The film earned $3.9 million on Friday, $2.89 million on Saturday, and $1.9 million on Sunday. Internationally, it grossed $1.8 million, bringing its worldwide total to $10.5 million (via Box Office Mojo). The R-rated action-comedy received a B CinemaScore, with 58% of the audience being male. Premium Large Format screenings accounted for 32% of ticket sales, and AMC Burbank recorded the highest individual theater gross at approximately $33,000.
The total domestic box office revenue for the weekend was approximately $54.7 million, which appears to be the lowest-grossing weekend of 2025. Warner Bros.’ Mickey 17 and Focus Features’ Black Bag earned the second place with $7.5 million each.
Mickey 17, in its second weekend, dropped 60% and reached a domestic total of $33.2 million. The film’s worldwide gross stands at $90.5 million. Black Bag, a spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh, had a strong performance on the East and West Coasts, with AMC Lincoln Square in New York reporting approximately $59,000 in revenue.
Other new releases included The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which debuted with $3.17 million, earning a B+ CinemaScore. The Last Supper opened with $2.8 million and got an A- CinemaScore, performing strong in the South and Midwest. A24’s Opus grossed $1 million across 1,764 theaters and received a C+ CinemaScore. Audience turnout for Opus was 54% female, with the largest age group being 25-34 years old.
Despite multiple new releases, industry analysts pointed to a lack of compelling content as a key factor behind the low box office numbers. A film finance expert stated, “It’s not a marketplace problem, it’s a studio problem because they’re not making two-quadrant movies that audiences want to see.” (via Deadline)
Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on ComingSoon.
