Battle at the Box Office 10/17

The Accountant took the top spot from fellow R rated thriller The Girl on the Train over the weekend, sending that literary adaptation to second place.

The Accountant made $24.7 million, the ninth best opening for Ben Affleck ahead of The Town and the best opening ever for director Gavin O’Connor.  Audiences seemed to enjoy The Accountant more than The Girl on the Train, so it could have potentially a bit longer of a hold at the box office but there’s direct action competition coming this weekend with the new Jack Reacher movie.

The Girl on the Train took in another $12.2 million, putting it over $46 million for it’s two weeks out, which just barely tops it’s budget at $45 million.

Kevin Hart: What Now? took third place with $11.7 million, the biggest opening ever for a stand up movie (not adjusting for inflation) and another $10+ million opening for Kevin Hart’s stand up movies.  What Now? was in three times as many theaters as the last Kevin Hart concert movie, Let Me Explain.

Miss Peregrine and Deepwater Horizon rounded out the top 5 with both movies struggling to get close to making up for their $110 million budgets.

Way down on the list at eleventh place, the barely advertised Max Steel had an all time horrific opening, making it into the top 15 worst of all time at #13 with $2.2 million in over 2,000 theaters, making less than The Adventures of Pluto Nash at #14.

In other news, The Secret Life of Pets, still playing internationally, is up to $858.3 million worldwide and bumped Inside Out aside to become the 50th highest grossing film of all time.