Despite five new nationwide releases, this weekend was among the year’s lowest grossing to date with roughly $54 million across all films. This sluggish first quarter has been another blow to the badly bruised movie theater business, which is banking on 2025 to revive the business after COVID and Hollywood’s labor strikes.

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).

Another newcomer, Steven Soderbergh’s sleek thriller “Black Bag,” struggled to draw crowds despite rave reviews. The R-rated spy drama opened at No. 3 with $7 million from 2,705 cinemas. It’s not a bad start for a movie aimed at older audiences, except that Focus Features shelled out $50 million on the film.

Meanwhile, A24’s surrealist satire “Opus” cratered in 12th place with $1 million from 1,764 theaters, one of the worst starts ever for a wide release.

“The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” debuted in fifth place with $3 million from 2,827 locations,

Last weekend’s champion “Mickey 17” slid to second place with $7.6 million from 3,807 venues, a tragic 60% decline from opening weekend. So far, the dystopian sci-fi comedy from Bong Joon Ho and Robert Pattinson has generated $33.3 million domestically and roughly $60 million globally. That’s a problem because “Mickey 17” cost $118 million to produce and requires around $275 million to $300 million worldwide to get into the black during its big screen run