1. The Accountant (review)- $24.7M
Lately, successful Ben Affleck movies have fallen in one of two camps: either he's directing them to Oscars glory like The Town or Argo; or he's in blockbuster mode as Batman. Other projects outside of that have not made a ton of noise, with the exception of Gone Girl which had the strength of a blockbuster novel behind it. But that changes this week with The Accountant, an original action-thriller that is powered purely by Affleck. The Gavin O'Connor-directed film opened with $24.7M, which is more than half of its production budget. I likened the film to a mish-mash of styles, part superhero, part noir mystery, part dramatic character study, centering on autistic math savant who is also a trained combatant. It felt like a setup to a potential franchise and if these number hold, plus get a boost overseas, we could see that happen.
2. Kevin Hart: What Now? (review)- $11.98M
There aren't many comedians who can open up a stand-up comedy movie to over 2500 theaters, but Kevin Hart is one. His third and largest by far is Kevin Hart: What Now? which opened at $11.9M. It's the biggest opening weekend for such a film, surpassing 2000's The Original Kings of Comedy. Taking Hart's career as a whole this is just more proof of his star power. Already this year he's had hits in Ride Along 2, Central Intelligence, and The Secret Life of Pets. Dude is unbeatable right now.
3. The Girl On the Train- $11.97M/$46.5M
A 51% slide isn't too bad for the adult-geared thriller, The Girl On the Train, which is earned $11.9M for a $46M total. Overall its numbers are at $63M worldwide so Universal is already in the black and should be happy with the result.
4. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children- $8.9M/$65.8M
5. Deepwater Horizon- $6.3M/$49.3M
6. Storks- $5.6M/$59.1M
7. The Magnificent Seven- $5.2M/$84.8M
8. Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life- $4.2M/$13.7M
9. Sully- $2.9M/$118.3M
10. The Birth of a Nation- $2.7M/$12.2M
The sad story of Nate Parker's Nat Turner biopic The Birth of a Nation continues with a huge 61% drop from last week. That wouldn't be so bad if the controversial, one-time Oscars frontrunner had opened huge, but it opened pretty poorly too. At this rate it will barely cover the $17M Fox Searchlight put in to buy it at Sundance.
