The reviews weren’t great, but that didn’t really matter, because audiences clearly wanted to see Ben Affleck crunch some numbers, but more importantly, get into action. And the actor calculated a number one opening this weekend with “The Accountant.”
Earning $24.7 million, the opening is in line with 2010’s “The Town,” which wound up with $92 million domestic and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Jeremy Renner‘s performance. There will be no such awards consideration for the pulpy and kind of dumb “The Accountant,” but with a strong A-grade Cinemascore, the film looks likely to wind up with similar numbers. And Warner Bros. will be plenty pleased with that outcome for the mid-budget, R-rated action movie, in addition to leaving them feeling confident about the prospects of Affleck’s upcoming period gangster tale “Live By Night,” whose trailer unspooled in front of “The Accountant.”
READ MORE: ‘The Accountant’ Starring Ben Affleck Has All The Excitement Of An IRS Audit [Review]
Cementing his status as one of the biggest comedians in the world right now, Kevin Hart‘s stand-up movie “Kevin Hart: What Now?” squeaked into second place with $11.98 million (beating “The Girl On The Train,” which earned $11.97 million in its second week). Hart has obviously opened feature films with bigger numbers, but the expectations are quite different for this vehicle, which cost under $10 million. And the result easily explains why Universal are going to continue to bet big on Hart, with “Ride Along 3” now in the works.
Open Road Films seemed to know they had a dud with “Max Steel,” so it’s no big surprise that the barely promoted movie debuted outside the top 10 with a pathetic $2.1 million. It’s here today, gone tomorrow, and destined to live in the dark corners of streaming services forever.
In limited release, “Certain Women” earned the highest per-screen average: $13,046 on five screens for a total of $65,230. Other arthouse releases included: “Priceless” ($703,200), “Desierto” ($450,000), “Miss Hokusai” ($25,042) and “Coming Through The Rye” ($4000).
1. “The Accountant” — $24.7 million
2. “Kevin Hart: What Now?” — $11.98 million
3. “The Girl On The Train” — $11.97 million ($46.5 mil.)
4. “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” — $8.9 million ($65.8 mil.)
5. “Deepwater Horizon” — $6.3 million ($49.3 mil.)
6. “Storks” — $5.6 million ($59.1 mil.)
7. “The Magnificent Seven” — $5.2 million ($84.8 mil.)
8. “Middle School: The Worst Years Of My Life” — $4.2 million ($13.7 mil.)
9. “Sully” — $2.9 million ($118.3 mil.)
10. “The Birth Of A Nation” — $2.7 million ($12.2 mil.)
