Your Weekend Box Office Actuals (10.24.16)

	Film	Weekend	Opening Weekend	Current Gross
	Boo! A Madea Halloween	$28.501 million	$28.501 million	$28.501 million
	Jack Reacher: Never Go Back	$22.872 million	$22.872 million	$22.872 million
	Ouija: Origin of Evil	$14.065 million	$14.065 million	$14.065 million
	The Accountant	$13.643 million	$24.710 million	$47.538 million
	The Girl on the Train	$7.166 million	$24.536 million	$58.798 million

This weekend, Tyler Perry beat Tom Cruise for the box office crown when Boo! A Madea Halloween took home $28.5 million, far more than anyone was expecting, and one of the largest opening weekends for a film about Perry’s Madea character. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009) and Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion (2006) each made a little more than this one, in about the same number of theaters, at $41 million and $30 million, respectively. Still, given many outlets predicting Boo! wouldn’t cross $20 million, the fact that it nearly reached $30 million is impressive, to say the least. Looks like audiences really were jonesing for some Halloween entertainment as October comes to an end, rather than Cruise leading an action film once more.

Lionsgate

But Cruise’s second outing as titular character Jack Reacher also did better than expected, even if it came in second. Where Jack Reacher: Never Go Back succeeded was overseas, where it made $31 million, bringing the film’s worldwide total to $53.8 million. For its weekend with a $60 million budget, this is a fantastic start. Even if the film doesn’t have the longest legs, it should still easily be able to make a profit for Paramount. This sequel did better in its opening weekend than its predecessor and it’s not one of Cruise’s worst opening weekends by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t seem clear if the film will get another follow-up after this. Its intake also doesn’t look particularly impressive when you take into consideration that the film opening in nearly 4,000 theaters. But this is an okay opening — not a great one, not a bad one, just okay, perhaps even good, and therefore nothing to write home about.

The next film — and all subsequent films — fell into place exactly where they were expected to. The Accountant did well in its opening weekend, and in this second weekend too, but as I figured, people wanted more horror and so the sequel to 2014’s terrible Ouija did slightly better than the Ben Affleck thriller. It made less than the original, which opened to $19.8 million, but given the better reviews for Origin of Evil, this sequel should be able to do better in the long run. And even if it doesn’t, it will at least make enough to get a nice return on investment with its $9 million budget (after all, the film has already made $21.7 million globally). What this film really reveals is that 2016 continues to be a strong year for horror.

Universal Pictures

The Accountant came in just under where it was expected to, dropping nearly 45 percent from weekend to weekend, which isn’t bad at all. It’s a definite success as it nears $60 million worldwide. Affleck’s career in financial terms is wildly up and down — smashes like Batman v Superman, Gone Girl, Argo, and The Town easily crossed $100 million domestically when all was said and done (or at least got very close) while others like Runner Runner, To the Wonder, and State of Play, hardly did much of anything. This should fall closer to the higher end of things, but will likely still land somewhere in the middle.

Finally, as The Girl on the Train makes its way slowly into the station in its third week (remember, movies that aren’t attached to large franchises this time of year won’t stick around in the top five for long given how many movies are coming out), it sits on nearly $104 million worldwide, which is great for its $45 million budget, and especially because it did just slightly better than expected. It’s Emily Blunt’s best film since Into the Woods and Edge of Tomorrow and it’s definitely made her name a little bigger on marquees about town.

A24

The other films of the top ten were Miss Peregrine, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Storks, and Deepwater Horizon. Keeping Up with the Joneses is particularly notable given its famed cast and its broad comedy premise and yet it only barely made over $5 million in its opening weekend. It was an undeniable bomb this weekend, likely from a troubled marketing campaign and its release date being pushed back. Other notable films to mention are indie awards buzz movies Moonlight and American Pastoral. The former, which is already a critical darling, made $402,075 in only four theaters, while the latter, which is actor Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, is receiving more mixed reviews and made $149,038 in 50 theaters.

(Source: boxoffice.com, boxofficemojo.com. Figures represent numbers at time of writing, and may have changed.)

Anya Crittenton | Associate Editor