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Disney’s Short-Release The Lion King in 3-D Roars Ahead at the Weekend Box Office

The weekend’s box-office winner is not one of the several solidly decent films out right now, but rather a rerelease from the mid-nineties. That’s right, Disney’s 3-D-enhanced The Lion King — on a two-week special release to promote the film’s October 4 Blu-ray edition — is doing spectacularly, expected to bring in as much as $24 million or twice as much as initially forecast. (Then again, The Lion King is the highest-grossing hand-drawn animation ever, so far having earned Walt Disney $1 billion worldwide.) The three openings this weekend aren’t doing terribly well, though Ryan Gosling’s comfort-zone-safe Drive is expected to pull in a respectable $10 million or so. (Still less than Contagion, now in its second week.) As for Sarah Jessica Parker’s I Don’t Know How She Does It or horror flick Straw Dogs, we’re talking $5 million and change. [THR]

Disney’s Short-Release The Lion King in 3-D Roars Ahead at the Weekend Box Office