It comes out to about $3.5 million per thief.
The bank robbers of ''Ocean's Eleven,'' led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt, broke away with an amazing $39.3 million at the box office this weekend, shattering the December record held by Mel Gibson's romantic comedy ''What Women Want,'' which premiered with $33.6 last year.
The combined star power of Clooney, Pitt, and Julia Roberts, along with a teen-friendly PG-13 rating and no competition led to the impressive take, which also marks the best openings ever for Pitt (beating ''Interview with the Vampire'''s $36.4 million) and even Roberts (ahead of ''The Runaway Bride'''s $35.1 million). It stands only as the third best debut for Clooney, however, behind ''Batman Forever'' and ''The Perfect Storm,'' both of which broke $40 million in their opening weekends.
''Eleven'''s big numbers pushed the blockbuster ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' to second place, with $14.8 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to $239.7 million. The family hit was down an encouraging 37 percent from last weekend. It will need some more good holds along with a strong Christmas week performance to break $400 domestically, though it's already hit that mark worldwide. Perhaps the only encouragement for ''Potter'' studio Warner Bros. is that the movie that knocked the wizard out of No. 1 is from Warners as well.
One film that did have a large dropoff this week was the war thriller ''Behind Enemy Lines,'' which plummeted 57 percent from its $18.7 million debut. Its $8.1 million take this weekend brings its 10-day total to $31.2 million. Rather than see the Gene Hackman drama again, battle-hungry fans might be waiting for Ridley Scott's ''Black Hawk Down'' instead.
Rounding out the top five were ''Monsters, Inc.,'' which dropped only 27 percent to $6.7 million, thanks to its well-advertised ''bloopers'' Disney added to the end of the film, and the Robert Redford/Brad Pitt's CIA thriller ''Spy Game,'' which was off a frightening 58 percent to $4.6 million. Hey Universal: Get your hands on some Redford dialogue flubs, quick!


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