'Ocean's Thirteen' steals No. 1 spot at box office

LOS ANGELES: The all-star caper film Ocean's Thirteen made off with $37.1 million in North American ticket sales during its opening weekend to steal the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates on Sunday.   

The Friday-through-Sunday tally for the latest Ocean's sequel, returning George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Bernie Mac to the scene of their first heist, Las Vegas, was roughly on par with the debut gross of the first two films in the series.   

Ocean's Thirteen, released by Time Warner unit Warner Bros. Pictures, is the third film to team Clooney and company with director Steven Soderbergh for a franchise inspired by the 1960 'rat pack' adventure starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.   

Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which had sailed atop the box office for the past two weekends, sank to No. 2 in its third week with $21.3 million in US and Canadian receipts, according to studio figures compiled by box-office tracking firm Media by Numbers.   

The comedy Knocked Up, from Universal Pictures, slipped a notch to No. 3 in its second weekend with $20 million in ticket sales, while the latest animated penguin movie, Surf's Up, from Sony Pictures Entertainment opened at No. 4 with $18 million.   

Another of this summer's blockbuster sequels, the animated storybook satire Shrek the Third, grossed $15.7 million in its fourth weekend to round out the top five. The DreamWorks Animation SKG film, released through Viacom's Paramount Pictures, has now grossed nearly $282 million in domestic distribution.