Weekend Box Office: Simple Math

Ben Affleck’s latest movie headed into the weekend with mixed reviews, leading most to believe that it would become his second of 2016 to fail to please audiences. No one predicted that it would perform as well as it did. Meanwhile, Kevin Hart’s new stand-up picture saw great returns, but Mattel’s toy adaptation failed miserably.

The Accountant‘ isn’t out of the red yet, but it’s well on the way there. The slow-burning thriller over-performed this weekend by pulling in $24.7 million from 3,332 locations. Headed into the weekend, the $44 million picture was expected to finish in the mid-to-high teens, so the actual results are quite impressive. Considering the film’s positive viewer word-of-mouth, the only think that might hold it back from a strong second week could be Friday’s release of the ‘Jack Reacher’ sequel.

Kevin Hart’s third big screen stand-up special may have come with a price tag of $10 million, but that will ultimately be chump change by the time it closes its theatrical run – let alone VOD and home video releases. ‘Kevin Hart: What Now?‘ opened in second place with $11.9 million from 2,567 screens, making it the highest-opening of all time for a stand-up comedy film. With a strong critical response, positive word-of-mouth and this Friday’s comedy ‘Keeping Up with the Joneses’ looking like an unfunny mess, ‘What Now?’ has the potential to draw audiences again next week.

Last weekend’s #1 picture took a hard hit during its second outing. Not only did ‘The Accountant’ steal some of its thunder, but poor reviews and negative word-of-mouth caused ‘The Girl on the Train‘ to derail. Slipping 51% in attendance, the trashy thriller fell into third place with $11.9 million. The $45 million movie sits with a ten-day domestic total of $46.5 million and an international total of $33.1 million. Worldwide, it has earned $79.6 million.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children‘ fell a light 41% over its third week. The Tim Burton mess dropped two ranks and grossed an additional $8.9 million, raising its domestic 17-day total up to $65.8 million. While North America isn’t particularly enchanted with it, ‘Miss Peregrine’ is performing strongly overseas. The film’s international total now rests at $130.9 million, giving the $110 million picture a worldwide gross of $196.7 million.

Rounding out the Top 5 was the BP oil spill film ‘Deepwater Horizon‘. The intense true story drama made $6.3 million, bringing its domestic 17-day total up to $49.3 million. $27.6 million came from overseas. The $110 million picture now has a worldwide total of just $77 million. While director Peter Berg deserved a box office beat-down after delivering ‘Battleship’, this movie certainly deserves to do better than it is.

Mattel toys and Open Road Films teamed up to give us ‘Max Steel‘, a superhero movie based on a line of toys. As the Terminator would have said, “Big mistake.” With just $2.1 million, this is the thirteenth worst opening of all time for a movie debuting on more than 2,000 screens. At this rate, ‘Max Steel’ ought to disappear just as quickly as ‘Jem and the Holograms’.

In limited release, Jonas Cuaron’s ‘Desierto‘ saw decent returns. From 73 screens, it made $450,000 and per-screen average of $6,146. Distributor STX is expected to expand the border-crossing thriller in the coming weeks.

Top 10:

1. ‘The Accountant’ (Warner Bros.) – $24,715,000

2. ‘Kevin Hart: What Now?’ (Universal) – $11,984,245

3. ‘The Girl on the Train’ (Universal) – $11,974,915

4. ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ (Fox) – $8,900,000

5. ‘Deepwater Horizon’ (Summit) – $6,350,000

6. ‘Storks’ (Warner Bros.) – $5,600,000

7. ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (Sony) – $5,200,000

8. ‘Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life’ (Lionsgate) – $4,250,000

9. ‘Sully’ (Warner Bros.) – $2,960,000

10. ‘The Birth of a Nation’ (Fox Searchlight) – $2,715,000

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