‘Ocean’s Thirteen’ tops lackluster weekend
June 11th, 2007The “Ocean’s Thirteen” gang engineered a boxoffice heist, capturing the top spot in the weekend listings. But a bit of a summer chill settled over North America’s megaplexes as the latest installment of the caper franchise came up just short of its two predecessors, while the weekend’s other new debuts — the animated “Surf’s Up” and the gorefest “Hostel: Part II” — arrived below expectations.
Warner Bros. Pictures launched “Thirteen” — which it financed with Village Roadshow — in 3,565 theaters, where it delivered an estimated $37.1 million. But while the PG-13, Las Vegas-set tale reunited all the principals from the last two “Ocean’s” movies — producer Jerry Weintraub, director Steven Soderbergh, and George Clooney and his gang of modern-day rat packers — it didn’t quite equal the initial take of the two previous titles. “Ocean’s Eleven,” a remake of the 1960 Frank Sinatra film, bowed in December 2001 to $38.1 in 3,075 theaters, while “Ocean’s Twelve” followed three years later, also in December, with a $39.2 million opening in 3,290 theaters. (”Eleven” went on to gross $183.4 million domestically; “Twelve” captured $125.5 million.)
This time out, the “Ocean’s” gang placed its marker on a summer opening rather than winter, so Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman is predicting that strong midweek business should see the new film outdistance the first-week gross of “Eleven,” which amounted to $50.2 million, as well as “Twelve,” which rang in at $50.4 million. “It’s the first film of the series released in June, so we’re well positioned to take advantage of strong midweek business,” he said.
The film, which bowed to $13 million on Friday, $13.9 million Saturday and an estimated $10.2 million Sunday, skewed slightly older; of the audience, 63% was over 25. It skewed slightly female as well, 52%-48%.
