Ben Affleck’s ‘The Accountant’ Is 2017’s Most Rented Movie But We’re Going To Need To Check The Math

It’s true, someone has decided that it was a good idea to make a sequel to Gavin O’Connor‘s entertaining, but somewhat forgettable 2016 film “The Accountant.” A light, breezy, but exceptionally well-filmed action no-brainer, the film made a decent $86M domestically on a $45M budget. At the time of the announcement, film pundits scratched their heads. How, on Earth, did “The Accountant” get picked up for a sequel, when it only was a modest hit at the box office and savaged by most critics?

Well, it seems like we may, finally, have an answer to that question.

For those that have forgotten all the plot intricacies of “The Accountant,” allow us to summarize. The film starred Ben Affleck as an autistic, and brilliant, numbers guy that worked as an accountant for some of the world’s biggest crime syndicates. Oh, and he also happened to have a “very particular set of special skills” due to his father’s constant persistence for rigorous martial arts training when he was a very young boy. Suffice to say, this was Ben Affleck‘s version of “Taken,” but with a lot more math.

And just like “Taken,” the film has found a larger audience on home video and has, somehow, become the most rented movie of 2017 [according to THR)]. Yes, despite the availability of Amazon Prime and Netflix, audiences still went out of their way to rent the Affleck-actioneer in record numbers last year. According to an MPAA annual report, O’Connor’s film even topped such stalwarts as “Moana” and “Wonder Woman” (Respectively #2 and #3) on their list of U.S. digital movie rentals. This seems to be the most logical reason why the studio was quick to greenlight a sequel.

This is no doubt a strange top rental to have for the year, but it seems that despite its 52% Rotten Tomatoes score, strong word of mouth has made audiences take a major liking to “The Accountant.” The fact that it wasn’t bested by anything else during the entire year is an astonishing achievement that should be noted. However, as we pointed out before, people make odd choices when deciding what film to rent at home. Normally, rentals tend to be the “lighter” films, such as action films and comedies.

Critics all but shunned the film upon release and the online film community barely spoke about it. And with all that going against it, “The Accountant” still managed to find a major audience on home video. This just shows how much of a divide there is between critics and audiences and how Ben Affleck is still a very bankable star in Hollywood. Bring on the sequel.