Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Jason Statham, evidently, as his latest action flick, A Working Man, has topped the weekend box office, poisoning the apple of Snow White, which continued its disappointing run by dropping to the number two spot.

A Working Man once again proved that Jason Statham’s fanbase is a continuously loyal one, as the movie – which reunites him with The Beekeeper director David Ayer – earned $15.2 million in its debut weekend, a chisel in its $40 million budget. For a movie that banks on Statham himself (and not an established franchise like Fast and the Furious), that’s pretty good, landing in The Beekeeper territory.

Now onto Snow White, which opened last week with just $47 million. The live-action (well, mostly) remake of the Disney classic was bound to fall but we didn’t expect it to do so in such embarrassing fashion, as it slipped nearly 70%. While that still put it as the weekend’s runner-up, it only took in another $14.2 million. For a movie that has a budget pegged upwards of $270 million, this is easily one of the biggest red marks for Disney. Hopefully this will make them reconsider their desire to remake their animated classics (although a lot are still on the calendar)…or at least convince Hollywood to stop casting Gal Gadot.

The rest of the box office was far less dramatic, although a curious choice came in at #3: The Chosen: The Last Supper ($11.5 million), which is actually part of an Amazon MGM Studios deal that sees the fifth season of the faith-based series getting a theatrical release before hitting Amazon. It’s an interesting strategy that is evidently paying off, pulling solid numbers for a movie that has a niche audience.

Blumhouse’s The Woman in the Yard snuck through the gate with $9.4 million. That single-digital number isn’t all that far from the movie’s $12 million budget, although the studio’s non-franchise fare usually at least opens in the doubles. Failing to sparkle was Death of a Unicorn, which poked its way into the top 5 with $5.8 million. You’d think that a movie starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega would have fared far better at the box office but with mid reviews, an R rating and nothing really to grab an audience outside of the cast, it just didn’t have the magic to land.

One delight that made the top 10 was Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, now out courtesy of a 4K transfer. No doubt IMAX screens helped boost it to $3.5 million, but I’d also like to think those who were disgusted by OpenAI’s Studio Ghibli-inspired feature headed to the theater as a move of support. And considering its initial domestic run back in 1999 only saw it in 129 theaters, we’re calling this a win all around. Right behind it was Captain America: Brave New World, which, with another $2.75 million to its name, still stands as the highest-grossing movie of 2025 so far.

Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is trying to nudge towards $20 million domestically with its $2.15 million this weekend. Soderbergh isn’t normally a splash at the box office but his movies are almost always worth seeing so good on him for hanging in the top 10 (even if Black Bag won’t recoup its budget, not even earning back half of it on the domestic front). The number nine and 10 spots would go to Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 and the Jack Quaid action flick Novocaine, which is a lot of fun and well worth checking out. Mickey 17 took in $2 with a, while Novocaine earned $1.45 million in its third week. That might seem numb, but considering it has already recouped its budget, any extra bucks are welcome.

As it happens, Chris Bumbray’s box office predictions for this week’s totals underestimated Jason Statham’s ability to put in work. Our editor-in-chief, Chris Bumbray, thought Snow White would retain its top spot, but David Ayer and Jason Statham’s A Working Man hammered its way to the top of the list with a $15.2M debut over Snow White‘s $14.2M. Ah, well. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?

Next week will no doubt find a new champ at the box office, as A Minecraft Movie is looking to be a real blockbuster, proving to do well with advanced ticket sales ahead of its release. Other new titles include Lionsgate’s Pedro Pascal-starring Freaky Tales, horror-comedy Hell of a Summer (which is Finn Wolfhard’s co-directorial debut), The Luckiest Man in America (about the infamous Press Your Luck scandal) and Eric Laure (Michael Shannon’s own directorial debut). Mid-week, Screamboat – the latest horror movie taking advantage of copyright lapses – will also open.

What did you catch at the movies this weekend?

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It was a good news/ bad news situation at the box office this weekend for Paramount Pictures. On the one hand, their heavily hyped action comedy, Novocaine, starring The Boys’ Jack Quaid, managed to finish in the top spot (as we predicted). The bad news is that it happened to lead the slowest weekend of the year, with the $8.7 million gross certainly nothing to write home about. That said, considering that the movie sports a thrifty $18 million budget, it didn’t need to have a massive opening, and if word of mouth is good, it could become something of a sleeper. However, the B CinemaScore rating isn’t wild for an action comedy, so it’s possible it won’t be able to have as strong of a hold as the studio is no doubt hoping for.

Indeed, the race for number one didn’t end up being all that close after all. It was the race for second place that was a nail-biter, with Mickey 17 and Black Bag making around $7.5 million a piece. In the end, sources say Mickey 17 eeked out a win, but only by about $10k, with a $7.51 weekend, a 60% drop from it’s poor opening. With a $33 million total to date, this $118 million movie will hemorrhage red ink for WB, who likely have another pricey flop on the horizon next week with Alto Knights, which is barely being promoted. At least Mickey 17 is making up some of the shortfall overseas, having made about $57 million internationally to date.

Despite the star-studded cast, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag couldn’t attract much of an adult audience. It made $7.5 million against a $50 million budget. The opening isn’t that far off from what Focus’s Conclave made, but that papal drama was playing on 1000 fewer screens and also had a ton of Oscar buzz, which propelled it into becoming a word-of-mouth hit. 

Captain America: Brave New World was in fourth place with $5.47 million, with a $185 million domestic total. It will likely gross UNDER $200 million domestically, which is disastrous for Marvel. The international cume will likely be well under $500 million, which means the studio likely lost a mint on it. Ketchup Entertainment’s The Day the Earth Blew Up made $3.17 million – not a bad opening for a tiny upstart studio. Another low-key release was the faith-based The Last Supper, which earned $2.82 million on just over 1500 screens.

Next up were two holdover family flicks, with Paddington in Peru making $2.77 million for a $41 million domestic total – the highest of the trilogy. Dog Man wasn’t far behind with $2.5 million and a $92.8 million total. Neon’s The Monkey has had more staying power than initially thought, with it in ninth place with $2.46 million for a $35.2 million total. Finally, Last Breath rounded out the top 10 with $2.3 million for an $18 million total. A24’s Opus had a disastrous opening, making only $1 million on over 1700 screens. Ouch. With a C+ CinemaScore, the A24 cult seems to have given this one a big pass.

Next weekend sees the release of Disney’s controversial Snow White. Will it be enough to reinvigorate the box office? We’ll have to wait and see!

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2025’s box office woes just seem to be getting worse and worse. According to Deadline, as it stands now, the week’s number one movie – which is still a toss-up between Novocaine and Mickey 17 – isn’t likely to cross the double-digit mark. So far, Novocaine seems to have the edge, but it’s too close to call, with both movies looking on track to gross $8 million. While that’s an underwhelming number for Novocaine (a notch less than we predicted earlier this week), considering the low budget, it’s not a terrible result. However, the B CinemaScore is middling. 

However, even if the week-to-week fall for Mickey 17 is less than 60%, the movie is shaping up to be a major bomb for Warner Bros. The movie is unlikely to cross the $40 million mark domestically, which is a horrible result for a film that cost north of $118 million. Focus Features’s Black Bag isn’t performing well either, with the star-studded spy-flick only on track for a $6 million opening. That’s not too far off from what Conclave made in its first weekend, but it was playing on 1000 fewer screens and had a lot of Oscar buzz propelling it throughout the fall movie season.

Other new releases, like Ketchup’s The Day the Earth Blew Up or A24’s Opus, aren’t making much of a dent. The Looney Tunes movie (which was bought from WB) is on track for a $2.15 million opening (on over 2000 screens) while Opus, following its middling reception at Sundance, is only on track for a $1.5 million opening, despite the presence of The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri in the lead role. A24’s cult of fans seems to be giving this one a pass so far. The CinemaScore is a pretty bad C+.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a full round-up!

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Novocaine, which stars Jack Quaid as the reluctant hero who can’t feel pain, was initially being projected to take the top spot this week with an estimated $10 million to $12 million from 3,300 North American theaters in its first weekend of release. Early projections also saw it overtaking Mickey 17, which was expected to drop by 55% to 60% after its $19 million debut from the past week. 

Variety now reports that Novocaine is on track to make its $10 million to $12 million as early Thursday screenings have already totaled $1.75 million. $10 – $12 million in its first week is pretty optimal for the action comedy as its price tag came out to about $18 million. The premise is a fresher one, and Jack Quaid’s star is on the rise due to his run on the hit Prime Video series, The Boys. Quaid is also just coming off of the critically acclaimed horror flick Companion.

Novocaine is already getting good buzz for capitalizing on its brutal fun premise. Our Tyler Nichols had a blast, as he said in his review, “I feel like whenever some action movie comes along that impresses, it’s always “this reminds me of the kind of film from a different era” but that doesn’t apply here. Novocaine feels very modern, and builds off of all the similar movies that have come before it. There were some twists and turns that I never saw coming and it helped keep the film fresh. While it doesn’t break from the norm too often, when it does, it gives the film a lot more personality. Jack Quaid has added yet another character type that he can pull off effortlessly: action star.”

JoBlo also recently got to sit down and talk with the cast and crew of Novocaine and they couldn’t have been more gracious. Check out our interview with Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Jacob Batalon, Ray Nicholson, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen HERE.

This week also sees the releases of Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag, which stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, and Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich’s surrealist satire Opus.

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One of the tightest box office battles for number one in recent memory is set to happen this weekend, with both the new release Novocaine, and WB’s second weekend holdover, Mickey 17 having a solid chance at coming in first place. However, neither are expected to make over $10 million, with this on track to be one of the slowest weekends of the year, as 2025’s box office grows more sluggish by the week.

While a $10 million start would be just fine for the modestly budgeted Novocaine, Mickey 17 badly needs a box office win. However, even if it drops a modest 50% this weekend (which is unlikely), it will still go down as a box office loser for Warner Bros. I’m expecting Novocaine to open with about $10 million, which would be a solid start for the movie, which launches The Boys’s Jack Quaid as a leading-man, in this comic actioner. The reviews have been solid (check out this one from our own Tyler Nichols), and his previous film, Companion, managed to open in roughly the same range.

Mickey 17 should make about $8 million, which would put it in a distant second place, with the final tally for this movie likely well under the $40 million mark. Ouch. Warner Bros has been having a rough year at the box office, with their next release, Alto Knights, barely getting promoted. At the same time, A Minecraft Movie is a big question mark for everyone, as is Ryan Coogler’s big-budget Sinners.

The Steven Soderbergh spy romp, Black Bag, should manage a third place finish with about $7 million, although given how close the race is this weekend, anything goes. It could surprise everyone and outperform Novocaine and Mickey 17 and open in first! Or it could totally flop – it’s hard to tell with these kinds of adult-targeted flicks.

Captain America: Brave New World will likely drop to fourth place, with about $6 million, while Paddington in Peru should round out the top five with $2.5 million. There’s also a chance Ketchup Entertainment’s Looney Tunes movie, The Day the Earth Blew Up, could crack the top five, although given how new the company is, it would be a big surprise (one of our critics loved it)

My predictions:

1. Novocaine: $10 million
2. Mickey 17: $8 million
3. Black Bag: $7 million
4. Captain America: Brave New World: $6 million
5. Paddington in Peru: $2.5 million

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After a brief delay, acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho returned to theaters last weekend with Mickey 17, a quirky sci-fi epic starring Robert Pattinson that, despite its stumble during its box office debut, dethroned Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World after three weeks at the top of the charts. The director is striking with this high-concept sci-fi after his big Academy Awards win with Parasite. However, this week will also see competition arise with an action comedy that boasts an interesting hook — a timid protagonist who cannot feel pain.

This film, Novocaine, which stars Jack Quaid as the reluctant hero, is being projected to take the top spot this week. According to Variety, projections on the film are estimated to bring in $10 million to $12 million from 3,300 North American theaters in its first weekend of release. It wouldn’t be a bad start, as the movie’s price tag at Paramount Pictures came in at $18 million. Meanwhile, the estimates for Mickey 17 are expected to drop by 55% to 60% after its $19 million debut from the past week. Projections are putting its second-weekend earnings at around $8 million to $9 million. The Robert Pattinson clone film has already grossed $20.5 million domestically and $54 million globally.

Novocaine is already getting good buzz for capitalizing on its brutal fun premise. Our Tyler Nichols had a blast, as he said in his review, “I feel like whenever some action movie comes along that impresses, it’s always “this reminds me of the kind of film from a different era” but that doesn’t apply here. Novocaine feels very modern, and builds off of all the similar movies that have come before it. There were some twists and turns that I never saw coming and it helped keep the film fresh. While it doesn’t break from the norm too often, when it does, it gives the film a lot more personality. Jack Quaid has added yet another character type that he can pull off effortlessly: action star.”

This week also sees the releases of Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag, which stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, and Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich’s surrealist satire Opus.

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Paramount has released the trailer to Novocaine, which stars Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Lou Beatty Jr., Van Hengst, Conrad Kemp and Jacob Batalon. The unconventional action comedy features a reluctant hero who has a condition in which he cannot feel pain. This average joe embarks on an adventure that has him facing down a horde of villains and using his abilities as an advantage. The new trailer headlines all the positive buzz the movie is getting from critics, who are all basically calling the movie a violently good time as the premise takes you on a ride and the humor keeps you laughing.

The official synopsis reads,
“When the girl of his dreams (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, everyman Nate (Jack Quaid) turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.”

Novocaine has been rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout. The trailer prepares you for all the violent madness as it shows our hero getting thrown around into walls and getting shards of glass hammered into his fists, taking an arrow to the knee and further impaling it through him, as well as getting a knife shoved through his hand.

Novocaine is directed by Dan Berk & Robert Olsen from a screenplay by Lars Jacobson. Producers on the film include Drew Simon, Tory Tunnell, Joby Harold, Sam Speiser, Matt Schwartz and Julian Rosenberg. Paul Barbeau, Glen Basner, Josh Adler, Lars Jacobson and Alison Cohen are all on board as executive producers.

Quaid has also recently appeared in the sci-fi thriller Companion, which is written by Drew Hancock and caught the attention of Barbarian‘s Zach Cregger. Cregger was so impressed by the screenplay that he considered making the film his directorial follow-up to Barbarian. Instead, Hancock has made his feature directorial debut with Companion, while Cregger focuses on his own project, titled Weapons. Companion stars Sophie Thatcher as a young woman on a weekend getaway with her tech-bro boyfriend, played by The Boys’ Jack Quaid. The film is now available to watch on VOD.

Meanwhile, you can catch Quaid in Novocaine when it opens in theaters on March 14. Take a look at the trailer, then let us know if you’ll be seeing this movie on the big screen.

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