Box Office: Paramount’s Novocaine looks promising after USD 1.8M Thursday previews, exceeding expectations

Novocaine kicks off with a strong USD 1.8M in previews, surpassing genre rivals. If momentum holds, the action comedy could exceed projections and emerge as a sleeper hit.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 15, 2025 | 05:31 PM IST | 8.1K

Picture Courtesy: Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures might have a surprise hit on the way as its latest action comedy, Novocaine, kicked off its U.S. box office run with a promising USD 1.8 million in Thursday previews. The R-rated thriller exceeded industry expectations, outpacing several recent genre counterparts and positioning itself for a potentially strong weekend.

For comparison, the film significantly outperformed Plane (USD 620K), Expend4bles (USD 750K), Love Hurts (USD 850K), and Flight Risk (USD 950K). It also smashed Last Breath (USD 1M), Violent Night (USD 1.1M), Den of Thieves 2 (USD 1.4M), Monkey Man (USD 1.4M), The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (USD 1.5M), and Argylle (USD 1.7M), however, trailed behind The Beekeeper (USD 2.2M).

If Thursday's numbers hold, Novocaine is looking at a USD 12 million to USD 16 million range over its first three days.

Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and written by Lars Jacobson, Novocaine features Jack Quai d as Nathan Caine, a bank executive with a rare medical condition that makes him unable to feel pain. When his co-worker is taken hostage during a bank robbery, Caine embarks on a high-stakes rescue mission, initiating the film’s action-packed narrative with comedic moments sprinkled throughout. The ensemble cast includes Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, and Jacob Batalon.

The positive early numbers suggest Novocaine is benefiting from a mix of strong word of mouth and Quaid’s significant star power. With the action-comedy genre delivering mixed box office results in recent years, Novocaine’s performance will be closely watched as the weekend progresses. If it continues to perform well, it could give filmmakers with a penchant for high-energy, humor-driven action films quite a bit of relief.

Novocaine only cost USD 18 million to produce. It will compete against Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, and A24’s satirical comedy Opus, featuring Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich.

So far, Novocaine appears to have the upper hand among the three, as the latter two films took a dismal start in Thursday previews, putting their weekend projections in the range of USD 7 million to USD 8 million and USD 2 million to USD 4 million, respectively.

The film will also have to battle against holdovers Captain America 4 and Mickey 17.