Believe it or not, Ben Affleck’sThe Accountantwas the most rented movie of 2017, beating out Disney’sMoanaas well as DC’sWonder Woman. The MPAA broke with tradition and has decided to include home entertainment in its annual report. The report reveals that while people aren’t going to the movies as much, home entertainment numbers are exploding. While this isn’t totally surprising, the fact thatThe Accountantwas the number one, most rented movie of 2017 is very surprising.
The Accountantcame out in 2016 and is a crime thriller. The movie was directed by Gavin O’Connor, written by Bill Dubuque, and starsBen Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and John Lithgow. The story follows a small-town Illinois certified public accountant with high-functioning autism who actually makes his living un-cooking the books of dangerous criminal organizations around the world that are experiencing internal embezzlement.The Accountantreceived favorable reviews and was a success at the box office.
Thenew MPAA reportalso revealed that the U.S. portion of home entertainment spending was $20.5 billion, which is up 5 percent, including $13.7 billion in digital spending. This number is up 110 percent from 2013 as streaming and technology have gotten better, allowing for an easier experience for streaming. On the other hand, spending on physical DVDs and Blu-ray is down 15 percent from 2016, which is not a surprise. The DVD industry used to be one of the big money makers, but people opt to stream and buy things digitally now. Even so, the MPAA reports that physical sales were still $6.8 billion.
As far as DVD and Blu-ray sales,Moanais number one, withRogue One,Wonder Woman, Disney’s live-action remake ofBeauty and the Beast, andGuardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2following behind.The Accountantwas only the 19th best-selling digital title and didn’t even get into the top 30 when it comes to physical sales. Other top rentals of 2017 includedMoana,Beauty and the Beast,Wonder Woman, andPassengers.
The Accountantcame out to rent digitally and physically on January 10th, 2017, which could count for some of the high rental figures, just by being one of the first titles to be released in the year. The movie was popular enough that it was announced in 2017 thata sequel is in the workswith Ben Affleck returning. People were way more excited about seeing Affleck as an accountant than they were about seeing him as Batman in 2017’sJustice Leagueor evenBatman v Superman. We’ll have to wait until The Accountant 2 is released on video to see how it stacks up against the first movie in terms of rentals. Unfortunately, the MPAA doesn’t give out the specific numbers of how many times a movie has been rented. You can check out the original report aboutThe Accountantbeing the most rented movie of 2016 atThe Hollywood Reporter.
