Just ask the Golden State Warriors: Sometimes it’s better to have a really strong team behind you than trying to win a title … solo.
Ocean’s 8, an ensemble actioner that includes three Oscar winners (Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway), toppled Solo: A Star Wars Story for the weekend’s box-office championship. Ocean’s 8, which follows a trifecta of male-centric Ocean’s movies starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, actually outdid the guys at the turnstiles, too: The highest opening for a Clooney-led Ocean’s film (Ocean’s Twelve) was $39.2 million. Early prognostications have Ocean’s 8 landing at a tidy $41.5 million in North America. Just three-and-a-half more weekends like that, and the movie’s makers will technically have enough to buy the heist flick’s fictional, $150-million necklace outright.
Meanwhile, Disney’s Solo slipped to second, banking an underwhelming $15.2 million. Solo has underwhelmed at the box office (collecting just $176.1 million), and for plenty of reasons: a low-energy marketing campaign, an unusual summertime release (and just six months after The Last Jedi), a lack of interest in the story, and plain ol’ Star Wars fatigue have all been identified as potential anchors on Solo. But as Greedo might say, “Tell that to Mickey: He may only take your ship.”
Deadpool 2 finished third, scratching out another $13.7 million or thereabouts. The R-rated superhero apparently wasn’t scared of newcomer Hereditary, but most everyone else was: The deeply disturbing horror flick scared up $13 million—way above expectations—to finish fourth. That makes it the biggest debut in distributor A24’s history, burning The Witch ($8.8 million in 2016, according to Box Office Mojo).
Avengers: Infinity War continued to linger around the top five, collecting another $6.8 million. It’s still the year’s second highest-grossing movie at $654.7 million, trailing fellow Marvel-ite Black Panther ($699.4 million).
Hotel Artemis, the weekend’s third wide release, finished outside the top five. This dystopian R-rated actioner starring Jodie Foster settled into eighth place with less than $3.2 million.
Oh, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the biggest cinematic story overseas: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has already earned $151.1 million internationally. Sure, it’s still two weeks out from its North American debut. But signs point to a big opening: This would-be fossil could be downright colossal.
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