Exactly twenty-four years ago tonight, the red carpet at the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, California, glittered under klieg lights as Steven Soderbergh’s slick, star-packed remake Ocean’s Eleven held its world premiere. George Clooney, fresh off ER and already a certified movie star, led the ensemble as the effortlessly charming ex-con Danny Ocean. Flanking him were Brad Pitt (at the absolute peak of his heartthrob era), Matt Damon (still riding the Goodwill Hunting/Bourne wave), Julia Roberts (America’s reigning sweetheart), and a murderers’ row of supporting players including Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner, and a scene-stealing Andy García as the ruthless casino mogul Terry Benedict.
You can find Ocean’s Eleven on Amazon HERE and on Paramount+.
The event itself was pure early-2000s glamour. Paparazzi flashbulbs popped nonstop as the cast arrived in tailored suits and designer gowns. Clooney and Pitt, already close friends, joked with reporters about whose character was cooler, while Julia Roberts—then the highest-paid actress in Hollywood—radiated movie-star wattage in a sleek black Valentino dress. Even Eddie Jemison and Shaobo Qin, the film’s acrobatic “Amazing” Yen, drew cheers from the crowd.
But the real story was the movie itself. A loose remake of the 1960 Rat Pack classic starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, Soderbergh’s version traded smoky Vegas lounges and swing-era cool for Y2K gloss, hip-hop needle drops, and a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that felt perfectly calibrated for post-millennium audiences.
The original 1960 Ocean’s 11 was a lark—five friends (the core Rat Pack) deciding to rob five Las Vegas casinos in a single night, mostly as an excuse to hang out on camera. Shot during the day while the stars performed their nightclub act at the Sands each evening, the film became a cultural artifact more for who was in it than for its cinematic merits.
Producer Jerry Weintraub, who had long dreamed of remaking the property, approached Soderbergh in the late ’90s with a radical idea: keep the basic premise but make it actually good. Screenwriter Ted Griffin crafted a script full of triple-crosses, impeccable timing, and Rat Pack swagger updated for the new century. Soderbergh, coming off the one-two punch of Erin Brockovich and Traffic (both released in 2000), saw a chance to make the most purely entertaining film of his career.
Principal photography took place in Las Vegas during early 2001, with the now-demolished Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mirage standing in for the fictional “Bellagio” (the production even built a full-scale replica of the Bellagio’s famous fountains on a Warner Bros. backlot). The cast bonded instantly—Clooney and Pitt famously shared a house during filming, while Matt Damon later joked that the entire experience felt like “the coolest summer camp ever.”
When Ocean’s Eleven opened wide on December 7, 2001—the same night as the Westwood premiere—it grossed $38 million in its first weekend, eventually earning over $450 million worldwide on a $85 million budget. Critics adored its breezy confidence; Roger Ebert called it “a movie that’s a blast from start to finish,” while the chemistry among the leads became instant cinematic legend.
The film spawned two sequels (Ocean’s Twelve in 2004 and Ocean’s Thirteen in 2007), a female-led spin-off (Ocean’s 8 in 2018), and cemented the idea of the “all-star ensemble heist” as a viable Hollywood genre. More importantly, it turned Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and their extended crew into a modern-day Rat Pack—effortlessly cool, self-deprecating, and always in on the joke.
Twenty-four years later, Ocean’s Eleven remains the gold standard for stylish, rewatchable popcorn entertainment—a movie that makes robbing three Las Vegas casinos look not just plausible, but like the most fun anyone has ever had on screen this side of 2001.
You can find Ocean’s Eleven on Amazon HERE and on Paramount+.
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