'Accountant' crunches the weekend's best box office numbers
Also in Tattle: Tracy Morgan, Rihanna, Paul McCartney and Robbie Amell
Ben Affleck's thriller The Accountant, directed by former Penn football player Gavin O'Connor, opened to a chart-topping $24.7 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
[Read more: 'The Accountant' director Gavin O'Connor talks Affleck, autism, and playing linebacker at Penn]
The film didn't play especially well with critics, but audiences, who were 58 percent male and 68 percent over the age of 35, gave it a promising "A" CinemaScore.
The Accountant, which cost a reported $40 million to produce, didn't quite hit the heights of Gone Girl's $37.5 million opening, but it should still make the accountants at Warner Bros. happy.
The weekend's other new star-driven project, Kevin Hart: What Now?, shot at Lincoln Financial Field, narrowly took second place over last week's champ The Girl on the Train. The Kevin Hart concert film took in $11.98 million. The comedian's 2013 concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain opened to a similar $10 million in 2013. According to Box Office Mojo, What Now? is the highest opening for a stand-up comedy film.
In third place, The Girl on the Train netted $11.975, bringing its domestic total to $46.6 million.
Holdovers Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon rounded out the top five with $8.9 million and $6.4 million, respectively.
The weekend's other new opener, the Mattel-inspired Max Steel, tanked with only $2.2 million.
Internationally, Inferno, starring Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones, opened in 53 territories to $50 million in advance of its North American release on Oct. 28.
TATTBITS
* Tracy Morgan returned to the stage at Dover Downs on Friday night and, during a typically raunchy show, joked about the Walmart truck crash that nearly killed him and his suit against Walmart, which was settled for many, many millions of dollars.
"I forgive the driver. I'm not mad at him anymore," Morgan said of the accident. "But I'll tell you who is mad at him: my new white neighbors."
Although he'd played previously in Delaware following the accident, it was the first time Morgan had been back to Dover Downs since the night more than two years ago when he performed there and was later rear-ended by a Walmart truck on the New Jersey Turnpike.
According to delawareonline.com, Morgan, at one point, invited comedians Harris Stanton and Ardie Fuqua to the stage. They were with Morgan when his van was smashed. In the front row of the show was an empty seat, topped with a golden bow, for comedian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair, who was killed in the early morning accident.
Morgan, who suffered a brain injury, broken leg and several broken ribs in the wreck and went through more than two years of rehab, was emotionally overwhelmed by the show, as were many in the audience.
[Read more: Tracy Morgan: 'Am I just going to sit in the house and die?']
* Rihanna surprised concert-goers during the second weekend of Desert Trip, when she joined Paul McCartney for their song "FourFiveSeconds," originally recorded last year with Kanye West.
McCartney told the classic-rock loving crowd, "We have finally found somebody under the age of 50!" as Rihanna took the stage wearing a pinstriped suit and no shirt.
* Looks as if Robbie Amell (Deathstorm on The Flash) took one of brother Stephen Amell's Arrow arrows and played Cupid with it.
ETCanada.com reported he married Italia Ricci (Designated Survivor) on Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles.
She wore Rosa Clara. He wore Vera Wang.
Flash co-star Victor Garber was in attendance, as were friends Alexa and Carlos PenaVega and Laguna Beach star Talan Torriero.
The couple began dating in 2008 and got engaged in 2014. So Robbie works on The Flash, but he doesn't move too fast.
- Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
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