"Ocean's Twelve" Heists Box Office
By Bridget Byrne

    Ocean's Twelve flat-out soaked the competiton.

    George Clooney's and his abettors heisted a whopping $39.2 million over the weekend, according to final studio estimates Monday.

    Watertight in the face of lukewarm reviews Ocean's Twelve, which adds Catherine Zeta-Jones to a star-studded mix that already included, among others, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon, the PG-13 Warners release scored as the fourth highest grossing December opening ever--topped only by The Lord of the Rings troika.

    Swamping screens at 3,290 locations, Ocean's averaged $11,901 per site. Its haul was slightly lower than some box-office analysts had expected but still better than Ocean's Eleven, which set sail in 2001 with $38.1 million and eventually grossed $183.4 million domestically. However, ticket prices are a little higher than back in 2001 so fewer customers checked in this time around.

    With audiences swept up by Ocean's, there was little left for Blade: Trinity. For the franchise's third outing, Wesley Snipes and vampire-slaying cohorts only managed to slash up $16.1 million in second place.

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