Disney's 'Oz' bewitches box office with $80M debut

This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows James Franco, as Oz, left, and the character Finley, voiced by Zach Braff, are shown in a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)

This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows James Franco, as Oz, left, and the character Finley, voiced by Zach Braff, are shown in a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)

This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows the character China Girl, voiced by Joey King, left, and James Franco, as Oz, in a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)

This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows James Franco, left, and Michelle Williams in a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises, Merie Weismiller Wallace)

This film image released by Disney Enterprises shows a scene from "Oz the Great and Powerful." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? "Oz the Great and the Powerful" clicked with moviegoers.

Disney's 3-D prequel to the classic L. Frank Baum tale "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" debuted in first place and earned $80.3 million at the weekend box office in the U.S. and Canada and $69.9 million overseas, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Oz" tells the origin of James Franco as the wizard with Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz as the trio of witches he encounters after crashing in the mystical realm of Oz.

The updated take on "Oz," which was directed by original "Spider-Man" trilogy mastermind Sam Raimi, was a gamble that looks like it will pay off for the Walt Disney Co. The film reportedly cost $200 million and opened a week after "Jack the Giant Slayer," another big-budget 3-D extravaganza that reimagines a classic tale, flopped in its opening weekend, debuting with $28 million at the box office.

"Oz" was also golden overseas. The film conjured up $69.9 million from 46 foreign markets, including Russia and the United Kingdom. "Oz" could follow in the footsteps of Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," another costly 3-D film, which opened on the same weekend in 2010 and went on to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

"'Oz' is the shot in the arm that the industry needed," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "We had six consecutive weekends where the box office was down. As a result, we're at a 12-and-a-half percent deficit year-to-date on box office revenues versus last year. Not a lot of movies have worked. There have been several underperformers."

In its second weekend, "Jack" stomped out second place behind "Oz" with $10 million, dropping 62 percent since its opening weekend. It earned just $4.9 million overseas. "Jack," based on the Jack and the Beanstalk fable, was directed by Bryan Singer and stars Nicholas Hoult and Ewan McGregor.

The only other new release this weekend, the FilmDistrict revenge drama "Dead Man Down" starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, opened in fourth place with $5.3 million.

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

1. "Oz the Great and Powerful," $80.3 million. ($69.9 million international.)

2. "Jack the Giant Slayer," $10 million. ($4.9 million international.)

3. "Identity Thief," $6.3 million.

4. "Dead Man Down," $5.3 million.

5. "Snitch," $5.1 million. ($4.7 million international.)

6. "21 & Over," $5 million.

7. "Safe Haven," $3.8 million.

8. "Silver Linings Playbook," $3.7 million. ($6 million international.)

9. "Escape from Planet Earth," $3.2 million.

10. "The Last Exorcism Part II," $3.1 million.

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Oz the Great and Powerful," $69.9 million.

2. "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," $11.2 million.

3. "A Good Day to Die Hard," $9.1 million.

4. "Mama," $6.3 million.

5 (tie). "Beautiful Creatures," $5.8 million.

5 (tie). "Les Miserables," $5.8 million.

6. "Silver Linings Playbook," $6 million.

7. "Jack the Giant Slayer," $4.9 million.

8. "New World," $4.8 million.

9. "Snitch," $4.7 million.

10. "Boule et Bill," $4.1 million.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

___

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 AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-10-Box%20Office/id-a7ffe881557e45268d8e15198ef6beba

olivier martinez ny lottery Ohio Lottery Colorado Lottery Pa Lottery Ebates lotto

Manager: 'There's nothing wrong with' Bieber

Hugo Correia / Reuters

Justin Bieber performs in a concert at the Atlantico pavilion in Lisbon on March 11.

By Marc Malkin, E! Online

No need to worry about Justin Bieber. Despite some recent drama, the Biebs' manager, Scooter Braun, says he's more than all right.?

"There's nothing wrong with him," he told me today at singer Tori Kelly's secret show at the Conduit lounge at SXSW. "He's in a great place."?

Did Selena just diss Justin in her new dance video??

Braun said the Portugal concert cancellation actually happened awhile ago because of real technical issues stemming from the time it takes to move the entire concert production from one location to another.?

There's certainly nothing wrong with Justin Bieber's abs?

"It has nothing to do with anything other than that," Braun said. "Tell everyone Justin is good, really good."?

Related content:

More in Entertainment:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/03/11/17273147-justin-biebers-manager-theres-nothing-wrong-with-him?lite

Kenny Clutch Edward Gorey amber rose nascar nba trade deadline diane lane drew peterson

Board Games - Jewelbowolt's blog

[unable to retrieve full-text content]One activity that most children love to do is play games, and playing a board game as a family is a fun and uniting experience for everyone. Wouldn't it be fun for your family to design your own board game? Of course!

Source: http://jewelbowolt.typepad.com/blog/2013/03/board-games.html

michelle malkin october baby sugarland 16 and pregnant ludwig mies van der rohe jamie lynn sigler mega millions jackpot

Antibiotics are unique assassins

Mar. 11, 2013 ? In recent work, biology professor Kim Lewis and senior scientist Iris Keren demonstrate that all antibiotics are not created equal. Photo by Mary Knox Merrill.

In recent years, a body of pub?li?ca?tions in the micro?bi?ology field has chal?lenged all pre?vious knowl?edge of how antibi?otics kill bac?teria. "A slew of papers came out studying this phe?nom?enon, sug?gesting that there is a gen?eral mech?a?nism of killing by antibi?otics," said Kim Lewis, Uni?ver?sity Dis?tin?guished Pro?fessor in the Depart?ment of Biology and director of Northeastern's Antimi?cro?bial Dis?covery Center.

The stan?dard thinking at the time was that the three main classes of bac?te?ri?cidal antibi?otics each had a unique way of killing bac?te?rial cells -- like spe?cial?ized assas?sins each trained in a single type of weaponry. But this new research sug?gested that all antibi?otics work the same way, by urging bac?te?rial cells to make com?pounds called reac?tive oxygen species, or ROS, which bac?teria are nat?u?rally sus?cep?tible to.

"If they were right it would have been an impor?tant finding that could have changed the way we treat patients," said Iris Keren, a senior sci?en?tist in Lewis' lab.

And that's exactly how sci?ence usu?ally works, said Lewis -- through chal?lenges to main?stream thinking. But recent results reported by Lewis, Keren, and their research part?ners in an article pub?lished Friday in the journal Sci?ence sug?gest that this alter?na?tive hypoth?esis doesn't hold up. For example, even bac?teria that are inca?pable of making ROS are still vul?ner?able to antibi?otics. Fur?ther, some antibi?otics can work their fatal magic in both aer?obic and anaer?obic conditions -- but reac?tive oxygen species can only form when there's oxygen to fuel them.

"We chose to do the sim?plest and most crit?ical exper?i?ment aimed at fal?si?fying this hypoth?esis," said Lewis. "Killing by antibi?otics is unre?lated to ROS pro?duc?tion," the authors wrote. The find?ings were cor?rob?o?rated by Uni?ver?sity of Illi?nois researchers in another study released on Friday .

The team treated bac?te?rial cul?tures with antibi?otics in both the pres?ence and absence of oxygen. Other than the gaseous envi?ron?ment, the two treat?ments were iden?tical. There was no dif?fer?ence in cell death between the two populations.

Before per?forming these exper?i?ments, Lewis' team first looked at sig?nals of a flu?o?res?cent dye, which pre?vious researchers had used as an indi?cator for ROS levels. The team treated bac?te?rial cells with a variety of antibi?otics and mea?sured the strength of this signal. Since antibi?otics were pre?sumed to increase ROS levels, one would have expected increased con?cen?tra?tions of antibi?otics to cor?re?late with stronger sig?nals. How?ever, Lewis' group saw no such correlation.

"But there's a dif?fer?ence between cor?re?la?tion and direct obser?va?tion," Keren said. In order to sup?port their obser?va?tions with unequiv?ocal data, the team mem?bers phys?i?cally sep?a?rated the cells that had stronger flu?o?res?cent sig?nals from those with weak sig?nals and treated them both with the same antibi?otics. Both pop?u?la?tions suf?fered equiv?a?lent cell death.

"The research from Dr. Lewis' group demon?strates that, con?trary to cur?rent dogma, antibi?otics appar?ently do not kill bac?teria through induc?tion of reac?tive oxygen species," said Steven Projan, vice pres?i?dent for research and devel?op?ment at iMed and head of Infec?tious Dis?eases and Vac?cines at Med?Im?mune, both sub?sidiaries of AstraZeneca. "The results shown are rather clear but still leave us with the mys?tery as to how antibac?te?rial drugs help infected people clear bac?te?rial infections. At this point, we should prob?ably dis?pense with the 'one size fits all' approach to bac?te?rial killing by antibi?otics," said Projan, who was not involved in the research.

With these results, Lewis and Keren hope the field will be able to focus its efforts on under?standing the true mech?a?nisms of how antibi?otics wipe out bac?teria in order to effec?tively address chronic bac?te?rial infec?tions, one of the most pressing issues facing public health today.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northeastern University College of Science. The original article was written by Angela Herring.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. I. Keren, Y. Wu, J. Inocencio, L. R. Mulcahy, K. Lewis. Killing by Bactericidal Antibiotics Does Not Depend on Reactive Oxygen Species. Science, 2013; 339 (6124): 1213 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232688

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/g8LYJm8PcEA/130311101752.htm

geithner gabrielle giffords juliette lewis chelsea handler mitch daniels shirataki noodles prince fielder

Speed cited in Ohio crash that killed 6 teens

WARREN, Ohio (AP) ? Investigators were focused on speed as a key factor in the crash of a sport utility vehicle carrying eight teenagers that smashed into a guardrail and flipped over into a swampy pond, killing five boys and the young woman driving.

While citing an unspecified "high rate" of speed, investigators wouldn't speculate on whether alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash about 7 a.m. Sunday on a two-lane road snugged between guardrails just south of this industrial Ohio community.

No one in the vehicle had permission to take it, but there were no theft reports, State Highway Patrol Lt. Brian Holt said. The vehicle was licensed to a resident of Youngstown, about 20 miles away. It wasn't clear how the teens knew each other.

"I can't believe you're gone," Mariah Bryant, 12, wrote in a message taped to a stuffed bear at the scene in memory of her half-brother, Daylan Ray, 15, who was killed.

"I love and miss you so much," said the message, which drew a steady stream of onlookers. The bear was part of a growing memorial of stuffed animals at the roadside.

The Honda Passport veered off the left side of a road and overturned about 60 miles east of Cleveland, State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston said. Investigators say it came to rest upside down in the swamp and sank with five of the victims trapped inside. A sixth, who was thrown from the SUV during the crash, was found under it when the vehicle was taken out of the water.

The two boys who survived escaped from the submerged vehicle and ran a quarter-mile to a home to call 911, the highway patrol said.

Holt said at an evening news conference that speed was a factor, although investigators were still trying to determine the speed at the time of the accident.

"We will not be speculating on alcohol and-or drug usage pending toxicology reports," Holt said.

After the news conference, the gates of an impound lot were opened to show the wreck, with windows smashed and extensive damage to the front end, hood and roof.

Ralston didn't know where the teens were headed when the crash happened and Holt said later it wasn't clear how long they had been out.

"All I know is my baby is gone," said Derrick Ray, who came to the crash site after viewing his 15-year-old son Daylan's body at the county morgue. He said he knew that his son, a talented football player who was looking forward to playing in high school, was out with friends, but didn't know their plans.

Warren Fire Department Capt. Bill Monrean said a cold water rescue team was deployed to the scene and got five teens out of the submerged vehicle.

"Being a cold water rescue situation, cold water extends life," Monrean told AP Radio. "We knew we had a chance; even being in there a while."

Two of the teens, both 15, were brought to a hospital in full cardiac arrest, St. Joseph Health Center nursing supervisor Julie Gill said, and were pronounced dead there. She said they were treated for hypothermic drowning trauma, indicating they had been submerged in cold water.

The two survivors, 18-year-old Brian Henry and 15-year-old Asher Lewis, both of Warren, were treated for bruising and other injuries and released, she said.

All those killed were ages 14 to 19, authorities said. State police identified the others as the 19-year-old driver Alexis Cayson; Andrique Bennett, 14; Brandon Murray, 17; and Kirklan Behner, Ramone White and Ray, all 15. The Highway Patrol said Cayson was the only female in the vehicle.

Rickie Bowling, 18, a friend of Behner, sobbed at the crash scene as she recalled his playfulness and reputation as a cut-up.

"He was one of a kind," she said. "Everyone knew him in the neighborhood. In school, he always made everyone laugh."

Officials opened a school where several of the victims attended to provide counseling for families Sunday night. Superintendent Michael Notar called the crowded closed-door session heartbreaking and said counselors would be available again Monday in schools.

Cheryl Moore, 54, whose nephew is a classmate of some of the victims, emerged from the counseling session and said it was helpful. "I just feel we have to come to grips with what happened today," she said.

All eight were from Warren.

Warren, located near the Pennsylvania state line, is a mostly blue-collar city that was hit by the decline of U.S. steel mills. It has more than 41,000 residents in the industrial Mahoning Valley region.

___

Associated Press writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/highway-patrol-high-rate-speed-ohio-crash-063431955.html

old school nick swisher jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145

Sprint will launch an all-touch BlackBerry phone in 2012, but not the Z10

By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's ban on large sugary drinks from restaurants, movie theaters and other establishments was invalidated on Monday by a state judge as "arbitrary and capricious," a day before it was to take effect. The 11-hour decision was a blow to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose top lawyer quickly vowed to appeal. Bloomberg has made public health a cornerstone of his administration, with laws prohibiting smoking in restaurants, bars and parks; banning trans fats; and requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sprint-launch-touch-blackberry-phone-2012-not-z10-203501574.html

pat burrell hilary rosen grilled cheese allen west north korea missile don t trust the b in apartment 23 world financial center

Most Venezuelans think Hugo Chavez will recover, poll finds

Hugo Chavez has been battling cancer for two years, but most Venezuelans him to recover and return to active rule, a poll showed on Tuesday.

By Mario Naranjo,?Reuters / February 28, 2013

A woman holds a picture of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and the country's national flag during an event commemorating the violent street protests of 1989 known as the "Caracazo," in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 27.

Ariana Cubillos / AP

Enlarge

Most Venezuelans expect President Hugo Chavez to recover from cancer and return to active rule even though he has been in hospital and virtually unseen for two-and-a-half months, a poll showed on Tuesday.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Local pollster Hinterlaces said 60 percent of interviewees believe Chavez will be cured and back to governing, while 14 percent think he will recover but be unable to rule again, and 12 percent view his state as incurable.

Chavez, 58, underwent a fourth operation for cancer in Cuba on Dec. 11. Last week he returned to Venezuela and was whisked to a military hospital in Caracas.

Apart from four photos of him in hospital in Havana, the socialist president has not been seen or heard in public, with even friend and ally Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, unable to enter his room on two hospital visits.

The surprisingly optimistic view of Venezuelans - in contrast to a more pessimistic consensus among diplomats and analysts that Chavez's 14-year rule is probably nearing its end - came in the presentation of two recent surveys by Hinterlaces.

"Far from weakening 'Chavismo,' far from reducing the popular support for President Chavez, his absence and illness have strengthened the bonds of affection and identification with the president's ideals," Hinterlaces head Oscar Schemel said.

Previously released results from the same surveys showed that if Chavez is forced out, his vice president and preferred successor, Nicolas Maduro, is favored to win an election in a possible match-up against opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

Hinterlaces gave Maduro 50 percent of potential votes, compared with 36 percent for Capriles.

The opposition leader has publicly accused Hinterlaces of pro-government bias, and political polls in Venezuela are notoriously controversial and divergent.

The survey also showed that 60 percent of people view the devaluation of the bolivar currency earlier this month as negative for Venezuela. But the government otherwise scored high marks for its social welfare policies and ability to improve lives.

Accused by the opposition of lying and putting a gloss on Chavez's state, officials are urging Venezuelans to be patient.

"The president has the right to take whatever time he needs to recover ... We have the patience to wait for him, to understand him and to accompany him in his battle for life," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said on Tuesday.

"We can't succumb to the blackmailing of the right-wing - and its cruelty and inhumanity - which is clamoring for the president to appear, to intervene, to be sworn in right now."

Chavez missed his scheduled January swearing-in for the new, six-year term he won in last year's presidential poll.

(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3qE7lK3_vgA/Most-Venezuelans-think-Hugo-Chavez-will-recover-poll-finds

awkward CJ Spiller tracy morgan Chase.com Talk Like a Pirate Day raiders Demi Lovato