newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Shrek’ spinoff ‘Puss in Boots’ tops box office

NEW YORK

The “Shrek” spinoff “Puss in Boots” landed on all fours, opening with an estimated $34 million to lead the box office.

The DreamWorks 3-D animated film, distributed by Paramount Pictures, proved the popular character voiced by Antonio Banderas was a big enough draw outside the “Shrek” franchise.

The PG-rated “Puss in Boots” scored with family audiences on the weekend before Halloween and also drew a large Hispanic crowd, which made up 35 percent of its audience.

Though the box office for the top 12 movies was up 7.8 percent from the corresponding weekend last year, it still was affected by both the unseasonable winter storm on the East Coast and the appeal of the game 7 broadcast of the World Series on Friday night. DreamWorks estimated the storm took off several million dollars from “Puss in Boots.”

Paramount also claimed the weekend’s second top performing movie with the low-budget horror flick “Paranormal Activity 3.” That film took in $18.5 million in its second week of release, bringing its cumulative total to $81.3 million. Paramount’s “Footloose” was the fourth film on the weekend, adding $5.4 million for a three-week total of $38.4 million.

“In Time” opened with $12 million domestically but took in more $14.5 million overseas.

‘Field of Dreams’ property in Iowa sold

DYERSVILLE, Iowa

The sprawling eastern Iowa cornfields made famous by the movie “Field of Dreams” are being sold to a company that will preserve the site’s baseball legacy, the owners announced Sunday.

Don and Becky Lansing said they have accepted an offer from Mike and Denise Stillman and their company, Go the Distance Baseball LLC, which will develop the site near Dyersville as a baseball and softball complex. A purchase price was not disclosed.

The land has been in Don Lansing’s family since 1906. The couple put the property up for sale at $5.4 million in May 2010. The parcel includes the two-bedroom house, baseball diamond, six other buildings and 193 acres — mostly cornfields — from the movie.

The film, released in 1989, was based on the book “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella and starred Kevin Costner. The site has been a popular tourist destination ever since.

Montel: Israel leads in medical marijuana

JERUSALEM

Emmy Award-winning television personality Montel Williams says Israel is at the forefront of providing patient access to medical marijuana.

Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. He since has been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana to relieve pain caused by disease.

The former host of the popular long-running talk show “The Montel Williams Show” is meeting legislators, scientists and physicians in Israel on a fact-finding mission.

He told The Associated Press on Sunday that the United States could learn from Israel how to treat marijuana just “like any other medication that a doctor uses in their arsenal.”

Associated Press