The Girl On The Train led new releases and all releases at the box office, finishing number one with $24 million domestic. It’s a solid if unspectacular finish for the adaptation of the best selling book, whose author says is actually nothing like Gone Girl. Haha, whatever you say, lady. Actually, in terms of movie quality, I agree. Gone Girl, incidentally, opened with $37 million on the way to $167.7 million domestically, with a B Cinemascore and 88% on RottenTomatoes. Numbers Girl On The Train isn’t likely to match, with a B- and 44%. Though it should earn back its $45 million budget easily.
Last week’s top two, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon, landed two and three, with modest drops of 48% and 42% respectively. The previous week’s top two, The Magnificent Seven and Storks, landed four and five, with drops of 41% and 34%.
This weekend’s other two new releases landed all the way down at six and seven. The Birth Of A Nation grossed an estimated $7.1 million domestic, below the $10 million Fox Searchlight was reportedly hoping to make on opening weekend, after acquiring it for a frankly preposterous $17 million at Sundance. Is this a sign of it coming down to Earth? Maybe. But audiences did award it an A Cinemascore (personally I thought it was corny), and with its awards hopes still theoretically intact (don’t count on it after the rape controversy), there’s an outside chance it could continue to play.
Next up was Middle School: Worst Years Of My Life, an adaptation of a James Patterson book (strangely enough) that only mustered $6.9 million from 2822 theaters. That one didn’t screen for critics here, but based on the posters alone I already hate it. There’s nothing worse than little kids styled like models in a back-to-school catalogue. Ugh, isn’t middle school awkward? Probably not if you’re one of these overscrubbed Mouseketeers. Anyway, I hate child actors. Children should only be played by adults with endocrine disorders.
This weekend brings us Ben Affleck slaying spreadsheets and drug dealers in The Accountant, Kevin Hart: What Now, and Max Steel, whatever that is.
| Film | Weekend | Per Screen | ||
| 1 | The Girl on the Train | $24,660,000 | $7,844 | $24,660,000 |
| 2 | Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children | $15,000,000 (-48.9) | $4,049 | $51,053,000 |
| 3 | Deepwater Horizon | $11,750,000 (-41.9) | $3,605 | $38,518,000 |
| 4 | The Magnificent Seven | $9,150,000 (-41.4) | $2,476 | $75,915,000 |
| 5 | Storks | $8,450,000 (-37.3) | $2,342 | $50,118,000 |
| 6 | The Birth of a Nation | $7,100,000 | $3,373 | $7,100,000 |
| 7 | Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life | $6,900,000 | $2,445 | $6,900,000 |
| 8 | Sully | $5,270,000 (-36.3) | $1,723 | $113,485,000 |
| 9 | Masterminds | $4,100,000 (-37.3) | $1,348 | $12,788,000 |
| 10 | Queen of katwe | $1,618,000 (-35.2) | $1,285 | $5,384,000 |
[chart via ScreenCrush]