“The Accountant” Adds Up to the Top Film of the Weekend

BOX OFFICE REPORT

October 14-16, 2016

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Accountant  $24.7 million
Kevin Hart: What Now?  $11.9 million
The Girl on the Train $11.9 million
Miss Peregrine's Home
for Peculiar Children
$8.9 million
Deepwater Horizon $6.3 million

Ben Affleck took a shot as an action star without the cape and cowl, and his risk brought a great return on investment. The Accountant took the top spot with an estimated $24.7 million. The thriller required a great cast to elevate its ridiculous premise (a mild-mannered accountant for the mob is also a trained killer). That's one of the best openings for an R-rated movie in September. It's also the second-best opening for Ben Affleck among movies not based on previously existing property.

Kevin Hart won second place by a nose. His latest stand-up comedy performance What Now? beat out The Girl on the Train by less than $20,000. It's yet another success for the unstoppable Hart. The Girl on the Train won't have legs throughout the fall, but it will still be one of the stronger films of the season, especially considering it's rated R and aimed at adults.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children may be shutting down sooner than expected. It's going to come up short of its $110 million budget, though it's likely to be Tim Burton's 7th biggest movie. Deepwater Horizon is in a similar hole: it's not flailing, but it's nowhere near its budget or what it's predecessors have done.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Christine – one of two biopics about journalist Christine Chubbuck, who killed herself live on TV in the 1970s – opened on only one screen, but took in $14,046.
  • No one wanted to play with Max Steel. The action flick based on the toy line took in only $2.1 million.
  • The Birth of a Nation is sadly dying a quick death. The film opened below expectations last week, and it dropped a whopping 61 percent in Week Two.

Next week:

In a supremely crowded field, there's a four-way battle. Tom Cruise is back as Jack Reacher for some reason in Never Go Back. That haunted board game is back in Ouija: Origin of Evil. Madea is back in Boo! They'll all take on the spies and the neighbors of Keeping Up with the Joneses. If I know the American moviegoing people, they'll make Madea No. 1 with $19 million. Hellur!

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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