'Contagion' cleans up box office with first place (AP)

By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang, Ap Entertainment Writer – Sun Sep 11, 6:11 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – "Contagion" infected enough moviegoers to catch the top spot at the box office.

The Warner Bros. pandemic thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring an A-list cast that includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow coughed up $23.1 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The film's contagious opening marked the beginning of the fall movie season by exceeding the studio's estimates.

"I think Steven Soderbergh made a compelling movie that tapped into that fear that many of us have about illnesses, viruses and pandemics," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. general sales manager. "It's like a train or car accident. You can't look away. You prefer not to think about it, but when it's presented to you, you want to learn more."

Despite the breakout success of "Contagion," it was the lowest grossing weekend of the year so far for the film industry, according to Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. Dergarabedian said that's typical for the weekend after Labor Day and expected business to pick up in the coming weeks as the Academy Awards race begins.

"There are some great titles that are on the way," said Dergarabedian. "I see several promising films — Oscar contenders like `50/50,' `The Descendants' and `Ides of March,' and even potential big moneymakers like `Real Steel.'"

"The Help," the acclaimed DreamWorks Pictures drama distributed by Disney about black Southern maids speaking out during the civil-rights movement, slipped to No. 2 with $8.7 million after three straight weeks at the top, bringing its domestic total to $137 million.

"Warrior," the Lionsgate mixed-martial arts drama starring Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton, punched up a $5.6 million debut in the No. 3 position. David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate, said he expects "Warrior" to mirror the simmering success of "The Help."

"The film has gotten unbelievable reviews," said Spitz. "The audience reaction we're getting on the movie is consistent. People like the film. It's a slow burn. We think we're going to be in theaters for a long time."

Overseas, the family smash "The Smurfs" continued to dominate, pulling in $14.9 million to pad its international total to $321.2 million and its worldwide haul to $457.2 million. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" again came in second internationally with $12.5 million, lifting its overseas take to $207.6 million and its worldwide total to $375.4 million.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Contagion," $23.1 million. ($2.1 million international.)

2. "The Help," $8.7 million.

3. "Warrior," $5.6 million.

4. "The Debt," $4.9 million. ($1.5 million international.)

5. "Colombiana," $4 million.

6. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," $3.8 million. ($12.5 million international.)

7. "Shark Night 3D," $3.5 million. ($500,000 international.)

8. "Apollo 18," $2.9 million. ($425,000 international.)

9. "Our Idiot Brother," $2.7 million.

10. "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World," $2.5 million. ($425,000 international.)

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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Rentrak:

1. "The Smurfs," $14.9 million.

2. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," $12.5 million.

3. "Final Destination 5," $10.8 million.

4. "Friends with Benefits," $10.2 million.

5. "Captain America: The First Avenger," $8 million.

6. "Cowboys & Aliens," $5.5 million.

7. "Horrible Bosses," $5.3 million.

8. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," $3.4 million.

9. "The Zookeeper," $3.3. million.

10. "Crazy, Stupid, Love," $2.9 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

http://www.rentrak.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Steven Soderbergh talks "Contagion" and retirement (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)LOS ANGELES, September 5 (Reuters) – Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh explores how a lethal virus is transmitted from one person to another, until the entire world is affected in "Contagion."

The film, which debuted over the weekend at the Venice film festival and hits theaters Friday, features an all star cast that includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jude Law among others.

Soderbergh, known for directing such movies as the "Ocean's" trilogy, "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic," sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, what he learned about viruses and why he's decided to "retire" from moviemaking.

Q: "Contagion" is about a virus that kills people with no cure in sight. With real-life scares like SARS, N1H1 and the bird flu, this is a fear anyone can relate to.

A: "Yes (the virus) doesn't speak and it doesn't have a brain, but it is alive and it wants to stay alive and propagate itself. I really felt like this was great movie material because you cannot construct a life for yourself in which you're not around germs."

Q: Once someone gets the virus, death is imminent so it's like a zombie movie without the zombies.

A: "Matt (Damon) wanted a zombie. He kept asking for one. He kept saying we'd make a lot more money if we had zombies. I said, 'Call Gwyneth! Let's see if she's up for it.'"

Q: This is your sixth film with Matt. What is it about him that made you want him form "Contagion?"

A: "He's one of the few people that can play both ends of the spectrum -- he can be everyman, and he can be Jason Bourne. In 'Contagion' his character needed to be resolutely middle class. Matt's great at that because he's not one of those actors that comes in like, 'I wanna win this scene.' He's so completely lacking in vanity. He'll submit to the larger story and not worry about how he is coming across moment to moment."

Q: You worked with a lot of consultants to get the scientific aspect of film correct. Most audiences wouldn't know the difference. Why was that important to you?

A: "As a moviegoer, the more detailed and convincing the world of the film is, the happier I am. You go to the movies to be transported, to go on a ride, and this happens to be a ride you can't just forget the minute the lights come up because you have to touch the armrest in order to stand."

Q: Working with those consultants, what did you personally learn about protecting yourself against viruses?

A: "I'm washing my hands a little more. The hand sanitizer, according to the consultants we worked with, lasts about three minutes. The touching of the face is really bad. They said during flu season if you can manage not to touch yourself above the neck, you've got a better chance of not getting sick."

Q: You've got some scenes with monkeys in a lab that are being used as test subjects for the virus cure. Do you think that might cause an uproar within the animal rights community?

A: "It might. It should. That's a legitimately volatile subject. I can tell you that just in the brief scenes in which we had Rhesus monkeys in cages, it was really disturbing to film because they know what's going on. They know they're in a cage and that you've put them in there and that it is not cool. There was one that we were shooting with -- he had the lock in his hand and he was turning it and trying to figure out how to undo it. Then he looks at you. He knows. It's disturbing."

RETIREMENT, 'OCEAN'S' AND BERNIE MAC

Q: You've talked about retiring, but you still have three more movies to do. That could take a few more years, right?

A: "Nah. 18 months. In a few weeks, I start shooting a male stripper movie with Channing Tatum. We worked together on (the upcoming) 'Haywire.' Then I'm going to do 'Man From U.N.C.L.E' in February and 'Liberace' in June."

Q: So after that you're truly retiring from filmmaking?

A: "Call it whatever you want -- hiatus, sabbatical. I'm just gonna disappear for a while."

Q: Is it permanent?

A: "I don't know. Maybe. It depends."

Q: Why do you want to disappear?

A: "It's not that I want to. I need to. I've been running really fast for quite a while. It's been non-stop since 'Out of Sight.' That's a lot of work."

Q: What do you plan on doing during your sabbatical?

A: "I don't know. Interview people. I've done it a couple of times and I really enjoy it. I did a book of interviews with a filmmaker and it was really great to walk him through things and ask 'How was this done?' 'How was this accomplished?' I love process. I'm a process person. I like talking about how things were done as opposed to what they mean."

Q: If you choose to come back to movies in the future, could there be another "Ocean's" still in you somewhere?

A: "Not without Bernie Mac. It was a really unique group and we can't do it without him. We really hit the jackpot with those movies. (The cast) all liked each other, they enjoyed being together. Losing Bernie was a horrible tragedy. It was upsetting. He was such a doll and so much fun to be around."

Q: The "Ocean" movies were also your most successful. Do you pay attention to your box office track record?

A: "For me, all of the pleasure is in the making of the film. Once they're done and delivered, I've moved on. If you start thinking about results, it affects your ability to make things in the moment. You never want to lose the enthusiasm and the attitude of the amateur. You always want to be making creative decisions based on the same criteria you used when you were 15 years-old. What's important is the experience itself."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Venice: 'Contagion' tracks spread of lethal virus (AP)

VENICE, Italy – Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's latest film "Contagion" can be considered a 105-minute public service announcement with a simple message: Wash your hands. Often.

Certainly audience members may look more warily at public door handles and subway hand rails after watching, perhaps in a crowded theater, the film about the global spread of a lethal surface-borne virus with a kill rate of about 25 percent.

"It is impossible, once you start thinking about it, to stop thinking about it," Soderbergh acknowledged at a news conference ahead of the film's world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

"I'm washing my hands a little bit more. But since I showed up in Venice I have been shaking hands, alot. I was on an airplane, which is one of the worst places you can be. This is just the world we live in."

On a filmmaking level, "Contagion" recalls in some ways the great ensemble cast of disaster films such as "The Poseiden Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" produced by Erwin Allen in the 1970s.

"Contagion" features Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard and Lawrence Fishburne in a fast-paced drama that depicts the rapid spread of a lethal virus of unknown origin and with no available vaccine.

Damon plays Mitch Emhoff, a father trying to protect his daughter from infection after his wife Beth, played by Paltrow, succumbs to the virus after a business trip to Hong Kong.

Fishburne is Dr. Ellis Cheever, the cool-headed deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control, who dispatches Winslet, Dr. Erin Mears, to Minnesota, where the Emhoffs live, to figure out how fast the virus is spreading. Cotillard is Dr. Leonora Orantes, who heads to Hong Kong.

Law plays a muckraking San Francisco blogger, Alan Krumwiede, whose character provides 12 million unique viewers a day suggestions of conspiracy theories about the virus' spread and government efforts to contain it and develop a vaccine.

"There is a certain amount of conflicting and misinformation, and conspiracy that inevitably makes its way around the world with the same progressive force and the same spread as the virus," said scriptwriter Scott Z. Burns.

Soderbergh said the star cast makes the film with overlapping stories easier for audiences to process.

"You are throwing so many characters and so much information at the audience, that it is very helpful for them to get a reference point to hold onto," Soderbergh said. "There is a reason that movie stars have existed since the beginning of cinema. It's good for the audience."

But while disaster films may come to mind as the virus provokes food shortages, looting and kidnappings — not to mention mass graves in urban America — Soderbergh said he was actually thinking more of "All the President's Men" when he made the movie.

"Scott and I, I think, were interested in making a procedural that was realistic, obviously, in its content, but stylistically also very simple, very clean. So that's the film I was thinking of most," Soderbergh said.

Damon — who has worked with Soderbergh on six films, including the "Oceans" series, said he is especially proud of the scene early in the film when he is told that his wife has died. They wanted an alternative to what Soderbergh called "the slump," a long shot showing the guy getting the news and slumping against the way, so they talked to an ER doctor.

"This guy has delivered this news hundreds of times to people said that, there's 'the slump.' That's the one common thing that happens. The other thing that happens, that someone just can't actually absorb the information. So we literally did the whole scene based on a real conversation and how it actually goes," Damon said.

Paltrow rejected the idea that her character's death was in any way a moral judgment for cheating on her husband, a fact that emerges after her death as investigators tracked her movements.

"I think that if death by virus was a punishment for extramarital affairs, there would be about three dudes left in this room. Maybe less, because we are in Italy," she joked.

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A-listers not spared in pandemic film "Contagion" (Reuters)

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) – Not even the A-listers are spared in "Contagion," a star-studded movie directed by Steven Soderbergh that recreates the outbreak of a global pandemic.

Audiences used to seeing the most famous faces last longest will be in for a surprise when they watch the slick, globe-trotting picture which is in competition at the Venice film festival.

The ensemble cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle, most of whom were in Venice for the world premiere on Saturday.

Soderbergh, an Oscar winner for "Traffic" and best known for his "Ocean's" crime capers, said the complex nature of the film made Hollywood heavyweights particularly important.

"It's very helpful to have movie stars playing as many of these roles as you can, because you're throwing so many characters and so much information at the audience it's very helpful for them to get a sort of reference point," he told reporters in Venice.

"There's a reason that movie stars have existed since the beginning of cinema," he added after Contagion was warmly applauded at a press screening ahead of the red carpet premiere.

"It's good for audiences -- they like to have people they can identify with."

Contagion opens with a couple played by Paltrow and Damon who find themselves at the center of a global emergency that goes on to claim millions of lives.

Cotillard and Fishburne play health officials trying to get to the bottom of the disease in a race against time, while Law portrays a journalist and blogger who challenges the official line.

SARS AN INSPIRATION

At one point, one scientist irked by his questioning turns to him and says: "Blogging is not writing. It's graffiti with punctuation."

Soderbergh weaves the bigger themes of fear, panic and globalisation together with individual tales of sacrifice and selfishness, hopping from Hong Kong to London to the United States as he does.

Paltrow was asked when she would allow her pre-teen children to watch Contagion, which features death, violence and a scene where a dead character's scalp is peeled back during an autopsy.

"My kids can't even watch (children's comedy) 'Babe', so I don't know, probably not for a while."

She added that she did not see the death of central characters as any kind of judgment on the lives they led in the movie.

"I think that if death by virus was a punishment for extra-marital affairs there may be only about three dudes left in this room right now," she joked at a packed press conference. "Maybe less because we're in Italy."

Script writer Scott Burns said the story was partly based on the real-life outbreak of SARS in China in 2003.

Soderbergh, who said he would shortly be taking a break from film making, added: "All of the science in the film had to be accurate, all of the scenes in which the virus was discussed or shown visually had to be absolutely realistic or plausible.

"Otherwise we felt we weren't advancing our ideas very well or contributing to this genre very well."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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