Girl on the Train is #1

For the weekend of October 7-9, 2016, The Girl on the Train was the big winner. Not "Gone Girl" level, but still successful, especially considering how the reviews were mixed, and Emily Blunt has never opened a movie on her own. And hey, the severe weather in the southwest didn't help.

When Fox Searchlight bought The Birth of a Nation at Sundance, they thought they were getting an Oscar contender, but then controversy exploded when the story resurfaced that writer/director/star Nate Parker had been acquitted for rape in 1999, and that his accuser had committed suicide in 2012. The marketing just never clicked in for it.

Middle School is based on a children's book series, and with its low budget, anything it got was going to be positive.

There probably won't be another movie to open over $30 million until Inferno (10/28). Then this will be called the Season of Tom Hanks. I do expect The Accountant to open to about $20 million.

Opens October 14
THE ACCOUNTANT with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, JK Simmons and Jon Bernthal.
KEVIN HART: WHAT NOW? with Kevin Hart and Halle Berry.
MAX STEEL with Ben Winchell, Mario Bello, Andy Garcia and Ana Villafane.