A well-regarded 2025 action movie is making a splash on streaming. Historically, the action genre has been one of Hollywood’s most successful, especially since the rise of the summer blockbuster in the mid-1970s. Some of the biggest hits of all time are part of the action genre, either wholly or by blending it with another genre such as sci-fi. These include 2019’s Avengers: Endgame (No. 2 with $2.799 billion), 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home (No. 7 with $1.921 billion), 2015’s Furious 7 (No. 13 with $1.515 billion), and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick (No. 14 with $1.496 billion).

However, 2025 has so far not turned out very many major action hits. While three of the Top 10 movies worldwide at the time of writing are entries in the action genre, namely Thunderbolts*, Captain America: Brave New World, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, their huge reported budgets make it unlikely that any of them have turned a major profit in theaters. Other 2025 action movies have struggled against their reported budgets include The Accountant 2 and The Amateur. While тιтles such as A Working Man and Ballerina have performed slightly better, 2025 action has been lukewarm overall.

Novocaine Has Topped A Major Streaming Chart

Critics And Audiences Both Liked The Action-Comedy

Novocaine is now thriving on streaming. The action-comedy stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, an unᴀssuming man who has a condition where he doesn’t feel pain, which he uses to hunt down the people who take his work crush Sherry (Amber Midthunder) hostage. While the movie also had a lukewarm reception at the box office, it had a solid critical reception, earning a Certified Fresh 81% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics with an even better 84% audience score. ScreenRant‘s own Rachel LaBonte was one of the critics aggregated. Read an excerpt from her 8 out of 10 Novocaine review below:

I had some concerns the Novocaine trailer had revealed the funniest moments and ruined some of the charm of Quaid’s performance. Thankfully, that isn’t the case, making for a genuinely hilarious movie that had the audience in my theater positively cackling. A lot of the credit for that goes to Quaid, who fully cements himself as a leading man by deftly intertwining Nate’s polite, awkward demeanor with his growing determination to save Sherry at all costs. His comedic timing is on point the whole time.

The daily streaming chart for the United States on Paramount+ now shows that Novocaine has been No. 1 on the region’s movies chart for seven straight days. It has been in the Top 10 overall for 18 days since it began streaming on the platform on May 13. It has consistently outranked Mission: Impossible – ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning, which has the advantage of having a sequel currently running in theaters.

At the time of writing, Novocaine is one of just two 2025 movies on the chart, with the sci-fi romance Love Me trailing behind it at No. 7. Below, see the full Top 10 chart for June 19:

What This Means For Novocaine

It Is Now A More Sure Success

This development is good news for Novocaine, because it seems unlikely that the action movie turned a profit in theaters. While its break-even point is unknown, movies often need to earn back two and a half times their production budgets. The reported budget of the Jack Quaid movie is $18 million, meaning that it probably needed to hit $45 million. Unfortunately, it only grossed $34.2 million worldwide. However, it came close enough that VOD and streaming revenue could very well push it into the black soon, if they haven’t already.

Source: Paramount+