LONG LIVE THE (LION) KING

Seventeen years after it first roared into movie theaters, Disney’s The Lion King — this time a 3D version — is expected to top the box office again. Most forecasters are predicting that the animated film will gross around $15-20 million in its return, pushing it ahead of the second week of Contagion, which is […]

BOX OFFICE TUMBLES TO YEAR’S LOW

It turned out that last weekend’s total box office, already acknowledged as the year’s lowest, was actually even lower, as several films were overestimated by their studios on Sunday. Contagion led the list, opening with $22.4 million, down from an estimated $23.1 million. Another new film, the critically praised Warrior, wound up with just $5.2 […]

MOVIEGOERS CATCH CONTAGION (Updated)

The box office needed some help this past weekend. For that matter, so did The Help, which fell to second place after holding on to the top position three weeks in a row. It is a measure of how poorly the box office behaved as a whole — it produced the lowest total of the […]

CONTAGION LIKELY TO INFECT BOX OFFICE

Director Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion is likely to knock out The Help at the box office this weekend. The disaster flick, starring Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, tops a list of four films that are opening this weekend, including the mixed-martial-arts drama Warrior, the low-budget ($10 million) Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, and the […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: CONTAGION

Critics can’t seem to resist a pun or two when reviewing Contagion, despite their generally positive reactions to it. It’s “nothing to sneeze at,” remarks Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. His conclusion: Don’t expect great cinema ingenuity despite the fact that it comes from director Steven Soderbergh and boasts an impressive cast. “It’s […]