‘The Accountant’ Debuts at the Top of the Box Office

Ben Affleck’s The Accountant has topped the North American box office in its opening weekend.

The action drama, which also stars Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons, earned $24.7 million since its release on Friday, which helped it beat studio executives’ estimates of $17 million.

“This is a tremendous result. I was hoping we’d be opening up between $15 million and $20 million, but I thought it would be more like $16 million or $17 million,” Warner domestic distribution president Jeff Goldstein says.

In the film, the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice star plays an accountant and assassin with Asperger’s syndrome, who works for drug cartels and mob bosses. Affleck previously spoke about wanting to showcase the character’s humorous side in the action film.

“That’s what I really liked,” he said earlier this month. “First, when I was researching it I thought, ‘Oh autism, it’s going to be such doom and gloom and in fact I met people with such incredible senses of humor and great world views and really self aware.’

“There’s a documentary about four guys who have Asperger’s who are stand-up comedians. It was something that I wanted to include to show the life and the wit and the spontaneity of the character.”

Meanwhile, Kevin Hart’s comedy special Kevin Hart: What Now? has beaten out Emily Blunt’s The Girl on a Train for the new number two spot. Blunt’s thriller falls to three after topping the box office chart last weekend.

Tim Burton’s Miss Perregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Mark Wahlberg’s Deepwater Horizon rounded out the new top five.