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).

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,

Novocaine hit theaters hard this weekend, and star Jack Quaid caught the eye of an unexpected fandom. As the movie made headlines and the hype reached new heights, many commenters online began to suggest that Quaid could finally bring the Max Payne video game franchise to the big screen.