“Ocean’s 8” Steals $41 Million in Opening Weekend

Sandra Bullock and her crew pulled off their heist, and Warner Bros. successfully extracted $41.5 million from audiences this weekend. In terms of raw numbers, that's a higher debut than any of the George Clooney-led Ocean's films. Of course, considering how much higher ticket prices are now than they were 11 years ago (when the last film came out), it's the lowest. But it's also the second-biggest live-action debut for Bullock, behind Gravity, which coincidentally co-starred Clooney. The film will likely finish below the other three, but word-of-mouth could certainly propel it past Ocean's Twelve, especially since there aren't many female-focused films on the horizon.

Solo had a much softer fall in its third weekend, slipping to $15.1 million. The film will likely end its run north of $200 million. Though of course, none of the recent Star Wars movies had a weekend this small until their fifth (Rogue One and The Last Jedi) and sixth frames (The Force Awakens), and of course had made hundreds of millions more before then. Deadpool 2 held on better as well. It's now the second-biggest X-Men movie behind the original Deadpool.

Hereditary scared up plenty of audiences. The A24 horror flick set a record for its studio, debuting with an estimated $13 million. Its previous best was 2016's similarly not-for-your-average-horror-fan The VVitch, which opened with $8.8 million. It also has an outside shot at being the studio's second-biggest movie behind Lady Bird. Avengers: Infinity War meanwhile became the sixth movie to cross $650 million domestically, as it nears $2 billion internationally.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: Hearts Beat Loud, one of the most joyful films of the year. The dramedy with Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons as a father-daughter band impressed with $18,513 on just four screens.
• Hotel Artemis couldn't get as much attention as its clear inspiration: John Wick. The dark comedic take on organized crime only managed $3.1 million, good for eighth place.
• Won't You Be My Neighbor?, the excellent documentary on Fred Rogers, also debuted strongly in limited release. The film averaged $16,207 on its 27 screens.

Next week:

Incredibles 2 is here to dominate... for one entire week. The original film is consistently rated among the top Pixar films of all time. So between the kids who are going to want to see it, and the adults who love the first film, I'm expecting it to have Pixar's best debut ever, with nearly $150 million. That will dwarf both Tag and Superfly, which will both earn less than $20 million.