Despite pedestrian reviews, Ocean's 8 has opened to a franchise record $41.5M. To outperform the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon is an impressive feat for the film, which received some flack for gender-swapping the established Ocean's franchise; although, admittedly, not as much fan resentment as, say, 2016's Ghostbusters, which commercially bombed.
Speaking of Ghostbusters, the Paul Feig-directed comedy actually opened to a higher total than Ocean's 8, pulling in $46 million during its opening weekend, although the production costs were astronomically higher. Additionally, the Ocean franchise isn't as closely guarded by the geek culture that holds the likes of Ghostbusters and even Star Wars so dear. In fact, one could argue that the Ocean movies are geared more toward a female audience, to begin with, so the switching to an all-female lead cast which includes the likes of Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway carried little risk conceptually.
Perhaps more surprising than Ocean's 8 breaking its own franchise record is the fact that it dethroned Disney and Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Star Wars spinoff, which failed to take off at the box office, finished with a three-day weekend of $15.1M, bringing its domestic total to just $176.1M, undoubtedly a major disappointment. For a Star Wars movie to be taken out of the top spot so quickly has got to have Disney concerned about the future of the franchise.
Have you seen Ocean's 8?