Weekend Estimates: The Accountant Pencils in $24.71 Million Weekend

October 16, 2016

The Accountant

As expected, The Accountant will be the comfortable winner at the box office this weekend, with Warner Bros. projecting a $24.71 million debut for the thriller. That’s almost identical to the opening enjoyed by The Girl on the Train last weekend, and about average for Ben Affleck. His previous Fall outings all opened in somewhat the same vicinity: Gone Girl hit $37.5 million on opening weekend in 2014; Argo posted $19.5 million in 2012, ahead of a very fruitful box office run and eventual Best Picture award; The Town started out with $23.8 million in 2010.

The Accountant’s middling reviews, but positive audience reaction (it scored an A CinemaScore), should give it average legs, which means we can predict with some confidence that it will follow the path charted by The Girl on the Train. That film will make just shy of $12 million this weekend, for a total of $46.6 million to date, and is in a tie for second place with Kevin Hart: What Now?. Universal is currently predicting Kevin Hart will win out with $11.98 million to Girl on the Train’s $11.97 million, but that really means it’s all down to what happens today.

The remaining wide release, Max Steel, is failing badly with $2.16 million predicted from 2,034 locations. Its $1,064 theater average is worse than any film above it in the chart, and is, in fact, the 16th-worst average for a wide release of all time.

Also disappointing this weekend is The Birth of a Nation, which is set to fall 61% from its opening weekend to $2.72 million, for a total of $12.24 million to date. The most positive thing one can say about the film at this point is that it’s now the top-grossing film called The Birth of a Nation, before adjusting for inflation. Its 1915 namesake totaled $10 million, as best Variety could tell when it reviewed its history back in the 1980s.

In limited release, Desierto is doing fine with $450,000 predicted from 73 theaters; Certain Women, Miss Hokusai and Christine are all set for average over $10,000 in five, two and one theaters respectively.

- Weekend estimates

- The Accountant Comparisons
- Kevin Hart: What Now? Comparisons
- Max Steel Comparisons
- The Girl on the Train comparison chart
- The Birth of a Nation comparison chart
- Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life comparison chart
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children comparison chart
- Deepwater Horizon comparison chart

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, The Accountant, The Birth of a Nation, Kevin Hart: What Now?, The Girl on the Train, Desierto, Max Steel, Certain Women, Christine, Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai, Ben Affleck