‘Novocaine’ wins painful weekend for North America box office

[LOS ANGELES] Novocaine, an action-comedy starring Jack Quaid as a banker who cannot feel pain, topped the North American box office in its debut weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday (Mar 16), but ticket sales overall were brutally slow.

The Paramount film took in an estimated US$8.7 million from Friday to Sunday – in one of the lowest-grossing debuts ever to take the top spot, at least since the uber-lows of the pandemic, according to Variety.

Slipping to second place was Mickey 17, a black comedy from Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho starring Robert Pattinson, at US$7.51 million.

Pattinson plays Mickey, who volunteers for hazardous space missions and, when killed, is repeatedly “reprinted” to be sent out again. Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo also star in the Warner Bros film.

Black Bag, a spy thriller from Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, debuted in third place just behind Mickey 17 with US$7.5 million.

Marvel and Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World landed in fourth place, earning US$5.5 million. The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford has so far grossed US$185.4 million at home, and US$203 million overseas.

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The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie – a new animated caper featuring Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and other familiar characters – debuted in fifth place at US$3.2 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

• The Last Supper (US$2.83 million);
• Paddington in Peru (US$2.8 million);
• Dog Man (US$2.5 million);
• The Monkey (US$2.47 million); and
• Last Breath (US$2.3 million).