Jack Quaid’s action-comedy “ Novocaine ” topped a painfully slow weekend at the box office with $8.7 million. For theater owners, however, there’s not too much to celebrate: It’s one of the worst debuts to still capture the No. 1 spot (at least since the pandemic ground moviegoing to a halt).

Paramount’s action comedy Novocaine saw the brilliant Jack Quaid continue his strong 2025 run, following the late-January release of the widely acclaimed sci-fi thriller, Companion. Having just debuted in theaters across the most recent weekend,

March 2025 was never going to be huge at the domestic box office. While this time last year saw the movie release calendar populated with titles including Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two, Mike Mitchell's Kung Fu Panda 4,