Jack Quaid And Robert Pattinson Led The Worst Weekend At The Box Office In Decades
It was truly a terrible weekend at the box office. We're talking about one of the worst weekends in decades. That may sound hyperbolic but it's no less true. Case in point: Paramount Pictures topped the charts with its original comedic action flick "Novocaine." Starring Jack Quaid ("The Boys"), it earned $8.7 million. Indeed, the number one movie in the country in mid-March made less than $9 million. One would be hard-pressed to find weekends in the past 30 years where the number one movie made so little.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. This weekend also saw the release of Steven Soderbergh's new thriller "Black Bag." Despite having a killer cast led by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, it earned just $7.5 million, coming in at number three for the weekend. Meanwhile, last weekend's winner, the Robert Pattinson-starring "Mickey 17," landed at number two with $7.51 million. A small victory there. Unfortunately, director Bong Joon Ho's latest is tremendously expensive and after a disappointing opening weekend, "Mickey 17" is still doomed to flop.
It gets even worse from there. The acclaimed "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie," also floundered in its debut, taking in just $3.1 million. Is it better than being canceled altogether like "Coyote vs. Acme" was? Sure, but we're setting the bar pretty low there. Even arthouse favorite A24 floundered this weekend with the release of "Opus," which earned a terrible $1 million on over 1,700 screens. At $574 per screen, it's one of the worst per-screen averages in recent memory for a wide release.
The only weekends that were worse happened in 2020 when theaters all around the world were shut down during the pandemic. Those were the most extenuating circumstances imaginable. That was also nearly five years ago.
Original movies didn't motivate people to flock to theaters
In total, the domestic box office for the weekend added up to around $51 million. That is the worst weekend of 2025 so far. The domestic box office is also already trailing 2024 by around 5% compared to this same point last year. 2024 was also reeling in the wake of 2023's SAG and WGA strikes. What's so discouraging about this year, and this weekend in particular, is there are no such excuses. People just aren't turning up for movies they could or should be turning up for.
This weekend saw the release of acclaimed original movies. Soderbergh's "Black Bag" earned very positive reviews from critics. These are the types of movies many people say they want. Yet, here we are, with several originals being ignored. The family crowd didn't even want to turn up for a well-liked "Looney Tunes" movie. Theaters chains are truly going to struggle to keep the lights on if weekends like this become a more regular thing. Unfortunately, it seems like that's where we're headed.
Yes, things are probably going to turn around. Disney's live-action "Snow White" is sure to bring greener pastures with it this upcoming weekend. But theaters can't just always be waiting on the next "Barbie" or "Top Gun: Maverick." To further illustrate that point, "Captain America: Brave New World" still hasn't reached the $400 million mark globally after five weekends. Marvel isn't the automatic hit-maker it once was, so even that good name can't be relied on twice (or thrice) a year.
The problem is that audience habits have been irrevocably changed. Even if they want original movies, something like "Novocaine" or "Black Back" has that "I can wait to stream it" vibe. But Hollywood needs a healthy box office to make more of these movies. What we have right now is far from healthy, with this weekend serving to illustrate just how unhealthy it is.
Hollywood needs to try and fix this big box office problem
Some may try to poke holes in the whole "worst weekend in decades" declaration. For example, one could point to "Argylle" winning the Super Bowl weekend in 2024 with a horrendous $6.5 million. But that was during the Super Bowl. No such excuse existed this weekend. March can be a very robust month, with massive hits like "The Hunger Games" and "Beauty and the Beast," among many others, having arrived during this time in years past.
Even going back to 1996 when "The Birdcage" topped the charts with $10.1 million on its fourth weekend, the situation doesn't even compare. The domestic total that weekend was $61 million, and that doesn't even begin to account for inflation. So sure, one can perhaps find another bad weekend over the last 30 years, but to dig that hard to find a competitor only serves to illustrate the point.
2024 was only saved by a couple of wildly unexpected, outsized hits, including "Inside Out 2" and "Moana 2" (which was originally supposed to be a Disney+ series). Films like this are forced to carry the load, with theater owners' livelihoods on the line in between those blockbusters. That's unsustainable and Hollywood, collectively, needs to try and figure out a better way forward.
Does that mean keeping movies in theaters longer so people don't expect them on VOD mere weeks later? Or does it mean investing further in more original movies and taking losses in the short term to build up the habit of general moviegoing again? I don't have the answers, but I know this is a big, unsustainable problem.