Warner Bros. PG-13 rated casino heist dramatic comedy Ocean's Eleven fell one peg to second place in its second week but was still a big winner with an ESTIMATED $23.05 million (-40%) at 3,075 theaters (theater count unchanged; $7,496 per theater). Its cume is approximately $73.3 million, heading for $200 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Ocean's extensive cast includes Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.
"Ocean's Eleven performed right as expected this weekend," Warner Bros. Distribution president Dan Fellman said Sunday morning. "We will end the second week with a drop-off of probably 34-35 percent. The mid-weeks become stronger as we approach Christmas. We'll end the week with a cume of $80 million-plus and that's prior to Christmas. We had an extremely strong Saturday night [with about $9.5 million in ticket sales]. We had the best Saturday night of any movie in the marketplace. Word of mouth is very strong and we're in a great position going into Christmas with 80 million bucks in our pocket."
Columbia's R rated comedy spoof of teen movies Not Another Teen Movie opened in third place to a sexy ESTIMATED $13.1 million at 2,365 theaters ($5,539 per theater).
Directed by Joel Gallen and produced by Neal H. Moritz, it stars Jaime Pressly, Mia Kirshner and Randy Quaid.
"Certainly, we're pleased. It's a $15 million negative, which probably will make it one of the more profitable holiday movies," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing & distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning, adding with an eye on the film's amusing marketing campaign that, "Neither 'the popular jock' nor 'the nasty cheerleader' are profit participants. It will probably beat some of the big star holiday movies in that regard."
As for comparisons to past hits, Blake noted, "Dude, Where's My Car opened Dec. 15, 2000 and did $13.8 million and [wound up with] $46.5 million. Deuce Bigalow opened Dec. 10, 1999 to $12.2 million and did $65.5 million. I don't think you get the huge openings necessarily, but when you're a comedy alternative that holds throughout the holiday season you certainly hope to add up. We sort of split the difference between those two openings and, hopefully, we'll split the difference between those two gross totals."
In terms of who was on hand opening weekend, Blake pointed out, "It's pretty well equal male and female. Our sweet spot was certainly 17 to 25."
Warner Bros.' mega-blockbuster Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone fell two rungs to fourth place in its fifth week, still showing good legs with an ESTIMATED $9.9 million (-33%) at 3,422 theaters (-250 theaters; $2,893 per theater). Its cume is approximately $253.3 million, heading for the high $300 millions in domestic theaters.