Steven Soderbergh's ensemble heist caper Ocean's Eleven has started its international roll-out to strong receptions. His follow up to Traffic, which earned Soderbergh an Academy Award for direction last year, Ocean's Eleven ousted The Lord Of The Rings from top spots in Australia and Switzerland.

Taking the lead down under the film managed $2.8m (A$5.4m) from 286 screens in four-days compared to Rings' - in its fourth week - $1.8m from 406. Eleven just missed out on Australia's top ten openings of all-time list appropriately landing in eleventh position. In Switzerland the film scored $632,721 (Euros 707,382) from 55 screens between Jan 10-13.

Unable to dethrone Rings in Germany and the Netherlands Eleven still managed to record better screen averages than Peter Jackson's behemoth and claimed solid second places for Warner Bros. In Germany it grossed $4.9m (Euros 5.5m) in four-days from 583 screens, while in the Netherlands it played 91 screens for a four-day weekend of $712,484 (Euros 796,557).

Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts, Eleven also continues to play well in Italy where it held the top spot in its fourth week on release with a three-day gross of $1.6m (Euros 1.8m). It has taken $13.1m in the territory so far.

Having already managed $179,058 from six screens in three weeks in Iceland, Ocean's Eleven opened in two more Scandinavian territories, Denmark and Sweden this weekend. Soderbergh's last two pictures, Traffic and Erin Brockovich, recorded international grosses of $81m and $131m respectively.