Jack Quaid fights to get the girl of his dreams back in the action comedy Novocaine, which is on track to win the weekend box office.

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.Â
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.
About the Author
E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.