A gender-flipped version of the “Ocean’s Eleven” heist franchise, starring some of the best-known women in Hollywood, opened as the No. 1 film in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
“Ocean’s 8” collected $41.5 million in North American ticket sales, ComScore Inc. estimated Sunday in an email, pushing “Solo: A Star Wars Story” into second place in its third weekend. Two other new releases helped boost weekend attendance, with the A24 horror feature “Hereditary” placing fourth and Global Road Entertainment thriller “Hotel Artemis” opening in eighth place.
Starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway, the female-led “Ocean’s 8” opened stronger than the earlier films, which featured a cast that included George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. “Ocean’s 12” had the biggest opening of the three earlier films, at $39.2 million. Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. studio is the distributor.
Warner Bros. spent $70 million on the production, and millions more marketing the picture. It was expected to take in $45 million, Box Office Mojo estimated.
Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, the estranged sister of the con man played by Clooney. After a stint in prison, she puts together an unstoppable team of crooks. Their target is the annual Met Gala in New York and a necklace worth more than $150 million.
Co-stars include Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson and Helena Bonham Carter. The film scored 68 percent positive reviews, according to aggregator Rottentomatoes.com.
“Hereditary” got a thumbs up from 93 percent of critics and generated sales of $13 million, beating the $9.6 million projected by Box Office Pro. That marked a record opening for distributor A24. Toni Collette stars as Annie Graham. After her mother dies, the Graham family starts to discover cryptic and terrifying secrets about their ancestry.
The action thriller “Hotel Artemis” from Global Road opened with revenue of $3.15 million, ahead of the $2.5 million seen by Box Office Pro. It scored 59 percent positive reviews, Rottentomatoes said.
Set in a dystopian, future Los Angeles, the film features Jodie Foster as the Nurse, who runs a secret, members-only emergency room for criminals. Sterling K. Brown and Jeff Goldblum are among the co-stars