The Accountant 2 Is Blowing Ben Affleck's Original Movie Out Of The Water On Rotten Tomatoes

Ben Affleck’s turn as an action hero was something of a surprise hit when The Accountant debuted nearly a decade ago. Audiences clearly loved it, and that success led to fans looking for a sequel, which ultimately led to it actually happening.

Part of the reason that a sequel took so long, however, may be that while audiences liked The Accountant, critics did not feel quite the same way. The sequel certainly hopes to improve on the original in all manner of ways, and when it comes to appeasing critics, the film has already succeeded.

The First Accountant Movie Was Not A Hit With Critics

Back in 2016, The Accountant was only able to woo slightly more than half the critics who saw it. The movie has a 53% on the Tomatometer, making it a “rotten” film, despite the fact that the audience score is at a perfectly respectable 77%. CinemaBlend's The Accountant review was as middle of the road as most

The Accountant 2 has already improved on those numbers. The sequel has a 76% Tomatometer, which is good enough for the “Certified Fresh” label. Our own The Accountant 2 review is among those calling the sequel an improvement over the original. The movie also has an impressive 92% from the audience, though since those are all going to be people who caught early Thursday previews, they were likely predisposed to enjoy it.

The Accountant 2’s Box Office May Be A Different Story

While the much better numbers when it comes to critical notices and fan response are certainly a good sign, the big question is going to be whether The Accountant 2 will also improve over the original at the box office. Unfortunately, that’s where the numbers are currently working against it.

Sinners is expected to win the box office for the second week in a row, coming off a remarkable opening weekend, and the lower-than-expected drop-off over the week. The Accountant 2 is looking at an opening of somewhere between $20 and $25 million. It will have to reach the high end of that range to match the $24.7 million that the original brought in during its opening.

Even if The Accountant 2 is able to match the $155 million global box office of the original movie, that won’t be the same big win this time around. The Accountant 2 had a reported $80 million budget, which is nearly double that of the first film. As such, it will need to do far better than the first movie to make the same profit.

Of course, the first Accountant wasn’t expected to be the big box office success that it became, so perhaps the sequel will surprise as well.