# The Accountant (2016 film)
**The Accountant** is a 2016 American action thriller directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Bill Dubuque, starring [Ben Affleck](https://www.edgepedia.org/ben-affleck) as Christian Wolff, a math savant with autism who keeps the books for criminal organizations while working under the cover of a small-town CPA office.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant) When a Treasury Department crime enforcement division run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons) closes in, Wolff takes on a legitimate client, a robotics company where an accounting clerk has found a discrepancy involving millions of dollars, and the body count rises as he gets closer to the truth.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Gavin O'Connor; screenplay by Bill Dubuque[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant) |
| Lead cast | Ben Affleck (Christian Wolff), Anna Kendrick (Dana Cummings), J.K. Simmons (Ray King), Jon Bernthal (Brax), Jeffrey Tambor (Francis Silverberg), John Lithgow (Lamar Black)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-accountant-2016) |
| Release | October 14, 2016 (wide, US) by Warner Bros.; 128 minutes; rated R for strong violence and language throughout[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The) |
| Box office | $86,260,045 domestic; $155,560,045 worldwide; opening weekend $24,710,273 in 3,332 theaters[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The) |
| Budget | $40,000,000 per The Numbers; IMDb lists an estimated $44,000,000[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140479/) |
| Critical reception | 53% Tomatometer from 285 reviews and 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 51 on Metacritic[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-accountant/critic-reviews/) |
| Sequel | *The Accountant 2* (2025), again directed by O'Connor, with Affleck and Jon Bernthal returning[6](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/disney-plus/when-is-the-accountant-2-coming-to-streaming-heres-our-best-guess) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
Christian Wolff is a socially awkward mathematics savant who runs a strip-mall accounting business by day and, in his spare time, retreats to a vintage [Airstream](https://www.edgepedia.org/airstream) trailer kitted out with state-of-the-art weapons, drawers of cash in multiple currencies, and a [Jackson Pollock](https://www.edgepedia.org/jackson-pollock) mounted on the ceiling above his bed.[7](https://time.com/4529425/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review-2/) His real line of work is forensic accounting, un-cooking the books for dangerous criminal cartels, which requires him to be able to disappear at a moment's notice.[7](https://time.com/4529425/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review-2/) • [8](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review)
The legitimate job that drives the plot comes from Living Robotics, a cutting-edge technology company run by Lamar Black ([John Lithgow](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-lithgow)), whose books show a $61 million discrepancy.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review) Wolff works through 15 years of accounts in a matter of hours, keeping a makeshift ledger on the office walls and windows, alongside Dana ([Anna Kendrick](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-kendrick)), the in-house bookkeeper who first noticed the numbers.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html) • [10](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-accountant-review/5110069.article) Meanwhile, Treasury official Ray King blackmails his analyst Marybeth Medina ([Cynthia Addai-Robinson](https://www.edgepedia.org/cynthia-addai-robinson)) into identifying the mysterious accountant.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html)
**The character's background.** Flashbacks show Wolff's childhood autism diagnosis and his family's struggles with his behavior.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review) His career-soldier father chose harsh exposure over accommodation, reasoning that if loud noises and bright lights bothered his son, he needed more of them, not less, and trained him to fight.[7](https://time.com/4529425/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review-2/) As a child Wolff lived in 34 homes in 17 years, and the film also references time in the army and a stint in prison.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html) In the present, Wolff recites a nursery rhyme to keep himself calm, remains even tempered through violence, and in one scene is shown self-harming, beating his own shins with a pole.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html)
### Sequel
A sequel, *The Accountant 2*, directed by O'Connor and written by Dubuque, premiered at [South by Southwest](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-by-southwest) on March 8, 2025 and opened in US theaters on April 25, 2025, reuniting Affleck's Wolff with [Jon Bernthal](https://www.edgepedia.org/jon-bernthal)'s Brax, his estranged and highly lethal brother, alongside Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Marybeth Medina.[6](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/disney-plus/when-is-the-accountant-2-coming-to-streaming-heres-our-best-guess) • [15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWpEDNf6CU) The sequel reviewed markedly better than the original, with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 78% from critics and 92% from audiences, compared to 53% and 77% for the 2016 film.[16](https://live.screendollars.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SCREENDOLLARS-NEWSLETTER-2025-05-04.pdf) The Associated Press noted that the 2016 film had not exactly left audiences clamoring for another, but that the follow-up succeeds at punching up the numbers by the low standards of the original.[17](https://apnews.com/article/8fd94ab58d3a420245d40b2da69dcb42)
## Production
The screenplay by Bill Dubuque was originally set up at Warner Bros., which had trouble locking down a filmmaker, considering directors including the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers), and let the project go when its option expired; Media Rights Capital and Sony were then in early talks to co-finance, with MRC running production and Sony distributing.[11](https://www.zerogravitymanagement.com/the-accountant/) The film was ultimately released by [Warner Bros. Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/warner-bros-pictures), produced with Electric City Entertainment, Zero Gravity Management, RatPac Entertainment, and Dune Entertainment.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The)
[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from January 15 to March 15, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia, with Atlanta standing in for Plainfield, Naperville, and Chicago, Illinois.[12](https://www.backstage.com/resources/detail/productionlisting/the-accountant-84001/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140479/) Warner Bros. initially scheduled the film for January 29, 2016 before it moved to October.[13](https://time.com/3890210/ben-affleck-movie-the-accountant-january/)
## Reception
**Critical response was mixed.** The film scored 53% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 285 reviews, with a 77% audience score from more than 25,000 ratings, and a Metacritic Metascore of 51, labeled mixed or average.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant) • [5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-accountant/critic-reviews/) The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls it a scattershot action thriller that writes off a committed performance from Ben Affleck.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant)
Reviewers divided over the same qualities. [Richard Roeper](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-roeper) of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) scored it 88, calling it an intense, intricate, darkly amusing and action-infused thriller that does not always add up but is big fun, and the Seattle Times found the premise of accountant as action hero credible and fascinating.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-accountant/critic-reviews/) On the negative side, Time Out called it a laughably bad action thriller that turns its unassuming number cruncher into an action superhero with a motorhome full of military-grade weapons,[14](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-accountant) and Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com singled out two plot reveals as among the most ludicrous he had experienced in some time.[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-accountant-2016) Several critics noted the film's divided identity: the Independent wrote that the filmmakers seemed uncertain whether they were making a drama about a math genius, a Bourne-style thriller, or an uplifting drama about coping with autism.[9](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html) Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair described two impulses warring in the film, a drama about a fractured family with an urgent social theme and an unflinching action movie, and judged that the film nonetheless has something on its mind.[8](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review)
**Box office.** The film opened at number one with $24,710,273, 28.6% of its eventual total, and finished with $86,260,045 domestically and $155,560,045 worldwide, about 3.9 times its $40 million production budget.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The) Estimated domestic physical disc sales added $20,772,027.[3](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The)
## References
1. [The Accountant, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_accountant)
2. [The Accountant movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-accountant-2016)
3. [The Accountant (2016), Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Accountant-The)
4. [The Accountant (2016), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140479/)
5. [The Accountant critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-accountant/critic-reviews/)
6. [Here's when 'The Accountant 2' is coming to streaming, Tom's Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/disney-plus/when-is-the-accountant-2-coming-to-streaming-heres-our-best-guess)
7. [The Accountant Pays Small Dividends on Its Star, Time](https://time.com/4529425/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review-2/)
8. [Ben Affleck's Autism Action Movie The Accountant Is Only Half Bad, Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/10/the-accountant-ben-affleck-review)
9. [Film reviews round-up: The Accountant, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-reviews-the-accountant-a-streetcat-named-bob-richard-linklater-a7393586.html)
10. ['The Accountant': Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-accountant-review/5110069.article)
11. [The Accountant, Zero Gravity Management](https://www.zerogravitymanagement.com/the-accountant/)
12. [The Accountant, Production Listing, Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/resources/detail/productionlisting/the-accountant-84001/)
13. [Ben Affleck's 'The Accountant' Gets Jan. 29 Release, Time](https://time.com/3890210/ben-affleck-movie-the-accountant-january/)
14. [The Accountant 2016, directed by Gavin O'Connor, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-accountant)
15. [The Accountant 2 | Official Trailer, Warner Bros. (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWpEDNf6CU)
16. [Screen Dollars Newsletter, May 4, 2025](https://live.screendollars.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SCREENDOLLARS-NEWSLETTER-2025-05-04.pdf)
17. [Movie Review: 'The Accountant 2,' with Ben Affleck, isn't quite a write-off, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/8fd94ab58d3a420245d40b2da69dcb42)
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