BOX OFFICE: ‘THE ACCOUNTANT’ IS AT THE TOP AFTER ANOTHER TAXING WEEKEND

Warner’s The Accountant cashed in on Ben Affleck’s continuing resurgence to over-perform this weekend, despite its mediocre reviews, as it matched The Girl on the Train‘s take last weekend to comfortably finish as the weekend’s biggest film.

Expectations weren’t high for the thriller with a conservative projection of just $16 million given to it before Friday but it’s exceeded that estimate by some 50% and is one of the few pieces of welcome news for the box office overall this week. However, The Accountant will face serious competition from Jack Reacher: Never Go Back this coming Friday and Inferno the week after so WB will be quite happy it’s banked a stronger than expected opening.

Universal’s Kevin Hart: What Now? inversely under-performed at the box office to finish in the no. 2 spot. It was hoped the comedy concert film would come in somewhere around the $15 million mark but at least it can enjoy being the biggest opening for a stand-up comedy movie. The film had an extraordinary wide release for its type as it was released in over 2,000 theaters, hence why $11 million will be seen as a slightly disappointing take.

Last week’s The Girl on the Train performed as expected to finish in third with just over $11 million. It took a 51% drop-off but Universal can be pleased it wasn’t worse with The Accountant‘s arrival turning the heads of mature audiences. It has, however, dashed any hope of the Emily Blunt led thriller emulating Gone Girl‘s performance two years ago since the latter had taken 31% more by its second week.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon complete the top 5 as both films moved into their third week with neither likely to be delighted with their domestic grosses to date. Fox’s Miss Peregrine‘s performance is the more concerning for the studio since its falling short of franchise-size takings currently, whereas Lionsgate will be hoping for a more prosperous future for Deepwater Horizons on home entertainment to recoup its considerable $150 million budget.

The overall domestic box office gross was some 21% down on the equivalent weekend last year, which isn’t much of a surprise with the current content and a compelling election campaign reaching its final stages. However, the likes of the aforementioned Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Inferno should prove to be welcome stimulus packages to ensure October 2016 doesn’t go into the red compared to previous years.