Weekend Estimates (Saturday): ‘Ocean’s 8’ Aims for Franchise Best $40M+ Debut; ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Adds $14.6M; ‘Hereditary’ Strong at $12-14M

Saturday Update: Studio estimates this morning put Ocean’s 8 at a strong $15.8 million opening day take (including Thursday), setting the table for what’s projected to be an opening weekend within expectations around $41 million. 8’s opening day is tops among its franchise counterparts, notably coming in 20 percent ahead of Ocean’s Thirteen and its $13.2 million opening on the exact same day in 2007. Although 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot has been a common point of comparison, it’s important to keep in mind that film (and its $17.1 million opening day) including 3D inflated prices. Ocean’s 8 also came in ahead of The Heat‘s $13.7 million first day back in late June 2013.

Debuting in an encouraging second place for A24, Hereditary earned $5.184 million on opening day, including Thursday night shows. That’s 109 percent ahead of their first day gross for It Comes at Night one year ago. As noted earlier, the film and studio’s fan following makes projections more challenging than usual, but at its current pace we’re expecting around $12 – 14 million for the weekend, well ahead of the studio’s pre-weekend expectations.

Solo: A Star Wars Story slipped to third place on Friday with an expected $4.04 million, bringing its domestic total to $164.99 million through 15 days of release. This weekend should tally around $14.6 million.

Deadpool 2 added $3.765 million yesterday for an updated domestic total of $277.77 million. Its fourth frame looks to ring up $12.75 million, an official estimate from Fox.

Avengers: Infinity War capped the top five with $1.819 million and an updated domestic haul of $649.7 million. This weekend is pacing for $6.8 million.

Meanwhile, Hotel Artemis debuted in eighth place on Friday with an estimated $1.109 million. Global Road projects a $3.245 million opening weekend.

Early weekend estimates can be found in the chart below, including official studio projections from Fox, Global Road, STX, and Universal. Check back tomorrow for updated estimates from all major studios.

Early Weekend Estimates (Domestic)
FRI, JUN. 8 – SUN, JUN. 10

WIDE (1000+)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Ocean’s 8 $41,000,000 4,145 $9,891 $41,000,000 1 Warner Bros.
2 Solo: A Star Wars Story $14,600,000 -50% 4,335 -46 $3,368 $175,551,474 3 Disney
3 Hereditary $12,800,000 2,964 $4,318 $12,800,000 1 A24
4 Deadpool 2 $12,750,000 -45% 3,823 -338 $3,335 $277,765,541 4 Fox
5 Avengers: Infinity War $6,800,000 -35% 2,882 -688 $2,359 $654,697,699 7 Disney
6 Adrift $4,740,000 -59% 3,015 0 $1,572 $21,430,025 2 STX Entertainment
7 Book Club $4,300,000 -39% 2,802 -367 $1,535 $56,974,124 4 Paramount Pictures
8 Hotel Artemis $3,244,682 2,407 $1,348 $3,244,682 1 Global Road
9 Life Of The Party $2,000,000 -43% 1,842 -669 $1,086 $50,161,577 5 Warner Bros. / New Line
10 Upgrade $1,900,000 -59% 1,458 1 $1,303 $8,889,605 2 OTL Releasing
11 Breaking In $1,310,000 -53% 1,162 -520 $1,127 $43,946,185 5 Universal Pictures
12 Overboard $1,100,000 -44% 1,056 -172 $1,042 $47,527,579 6 Lionsgate / Pantelion
13 Action Point $880,000 -63% 2,032 0 $433 $4,448,033 2 Paramount Pictures
14 Show Dogs $803,836 -47% 1,148 -1179 $700 $16,430,780 4 Global Road Entertainment

LIMITED (100 — 999)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 A Quiet Place $1,000,000 -44% 904 -252 $1,106 $185,460,343 10 Paramount
2 RBG $535,000 -50% 375 -57 $1,427 $8,968,572 6 Magnolia Pictures
3 Black Panther $130,000 -47% 186 -98 $699 $699,381,067 17 Disney
4 A Wrinkle in Time $110,000 -16% 157 -30 $701 $98,150,307 14 Walt Disney Pictures
5 Isle of Dogs $90,000 -36% 115 -14 $783 $31,578,163 12 Fox Searchlight

PLATFORM (1 — 99)

# TITLE WEEKEND LOCATIONS AVG. TOTAL WKS. DIST.
1 Won’t You Be My Neighbor? $490,000 29 $16,897 $490,000 1 Focus Features
2 2001: A Space Odyssey (2018 re-issue) $130,000 85% 5 0 $26,000 $1,088,629 4 Warner Bros.
3 Super Troopers 2 $100,000 -65% 77 -61 $1,299 $30,476,881 8 20th Century Fox
4 Chappaquiddick $10,000 -67% 29 -39 $345 $17,362,152 10 Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures

===

Friday Report: Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s 8 scored a strong $4 million start from Thursday’s opening shows, setting the stage for an excellent opening weekend.

For the usual comparison purposes, that comes in stronger than the Ghostbusters reboot two years ago, which earned $3.4 million from Thursday shows. The caveat here is that Ocean’s bowed at 4pm in many markets yesterday, breaking from the traditional 7pm window. Yesterday’s take came in below the $5.6 million of Fifty Shades Freed earlier this year, although that’s to be expected given the loyal fan base of the latter franchise. General tracking between the two films remained quite similar leading up to release.

A24’s Hereditary started off in excellent fashion with $1.306 million from last night’s first shows, nearly doubling the $700,000 of It Comes at Night and falling just shy of Insidious Chapter 3‘s $1.55 million in early June 2015. Weekend projections remain challenging given the significant following for A24 and this film in particular since screenings earlier this year won over critics and generated the buzz machine very early on. We’ll have a stronger idea of where the film lands for the weekend once Friday numbers come in early tomorrow, but a debut on the optimistic end of expectations looks more than likely at this point.

Meanwhile, Global Road’s Hotel Artemis pulled $271,000 last night. That comes in a bit behind the $310,000 of The Belko Experiment when it debuted in March 2017.

For further analysis of the weekend ahead, check out our forecast from earlier in the week. Follow us here and throughout the weekend on Twitter for continued updates.

News Stories