Ben Affleck’s new thriller The Accountant opened to a chart-topping $24.7m this weekend, according to studio estimates.

Gavin O’Connor directed the R-rated thriller, starring Affleck as an autistic mathematician. The film didn’t play especially well with critics but audiences, who were 58% male and 68% over the age of 35, gave it a promising A CinemaScore.

It’s the continuation of what proves to be a long and fruitful partnership between Affleck and Warner Bros. Although The Accountant, which cost a reported $40m to produce, didn’t quite hit the heights of Gone Girl’s $37.5m opening, it is in the range of some of his other R-rated fall openings with the studio. Argo, for instance, launched to $19.5m in 2012, and The Town took in $23.8m in 2010.

The Accountant also far surpassed Warner Bros’ early predictions for the film, which had it in the $15m to $20m range.

“We’re in the Ben Affleck business and we’re proud of it. We’ve had a lot of movies with him and we have a lot of movies coming up with him,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros president of domestic distribution. “Audiences just love him.”

Affleck’s mob drama Live By Night, which he wrote, directed and stars in, opens on Christmas Day. He also has the DC comics films with the studio.

The weekend’s other new star-driven project, Kevin Hart: What Now? narrowly took second place over last week’s champ, The Girl on the Train. The Kevin Hart concert film, which Universal Pictures distributed, took in $11.98m. The comedian’s 2013 concert film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain opened to a similar $10m.

“We love Kevin Hart and we love our association with him. This is our fourth collaboration with him alone,” said Nick Carpou, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “He is tireless in the way that he promotes his projects and the way that he’s always working. It’s really a pleasure to be part of it.”

In third place, The Girl on the Train netted $11.975m for Universal, bringing its domestic total to $46.6m. With such a minuscule difference, the Universal films could easily switch places when final numbers come in on Monday.

Holdovers Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon rounded out the top five with $8.9m and $6.4m respectively.

The weekend’s other new opener, the Mattel-inspired Max Steel, bombed with only $2.2m. Open Road distributed the film starring Ben Winchell, which currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Overall, the year is still up 3.5%, but the fall season is down from last year, according to box office tracker comScore.

“In the wake of the summer season, the fall always seems a little slow. This year is sort of typical in that way. We haven’t had an October breakout hit like we had with Gravity and The Martian,” said Paul Dergarabedian, comScore’s senior media analyst. So far, the fall’s top-grossing film is Sully, which has grossed $118.4m.

“I’m thinking we’re going to have a renaissance at the box office in a week or two and things could turn around,” Dergarabedian added, noting big upcoming films like Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Doctor Strange and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.