The Lion King originally hit theaters in 1994, but apparently if you slap some 3D on it and re-release it 17 years, you can once again take the #1 spot.

More than likely Disney could have skipped the 3D process and still won the weekend, but any way you slice it, The Lion King in 3D brought in a healthy $29.3 million.

Contagion slipped 35.4% to land in second place with $14.48 million. This is a great performance for any film in its second week, so it’s appearing that the public was ready for a thriller.

The ultra-violent Drive found itself in third place with $11 million, boding for a not so great future for the film.  It had great buzz from the Cannes Film Festival, but we’ll just have to see how it does after its had some time out in the public.

The Help fell to fourth place, but is still bringing in a healthy amount of money with another $6.4 million, bringing its total to $147.3 million. Off of a $25 million budget, it appears we have a clear it on our hands.

Closing up the top five was the remake of Straw Dogs with a very timid $5 million. Another new release for this week, I Don’t Know How She Does It, came in sixth with a highly disappointing $4.5 million.

Next week will see Abduction, Dolphin Tale, Killer Elite and Moneyball, none of which sounds like they will exactly take the box office by storm.

And, yes, Conan the Barbarian … oh poor, Conan. Dropping to 153 theaters it brought in $78,000 after 31 days of release. Adding insult to injury, Bridesmaids has been out for 129 days, has 170 theaters and did $124,000 this weekend … how many executives have been fired thus far over the disaster that is Conan?

It took a thriller about disease to finally knock The Help out of first place, but still the period drama held its on in the first weekend of the fall movie season.

Contagion was the only major release this weekend, and with a public starved for something new to watch, it brought in a healthy $23.1 million. Not a huge amount, but we are no longer talking summer numbers at this point. With fairly positive reviews, it should have some life to it.

Coming in second was The Help with $8.6 million. Despite falling out of first place, this movie did have the distinction of winning first place for the most consecutive days since 1999′s The Sixth Sense.

Coming in third was Warrior about … well, some sort of fighting.  I really haven’t followed this production at all.  It brought in $5.6 million, and considering its $25 million dollar budget, things aren’t looking too good.

The Debt fell 50% to land in fourth with$4.9 million.  Not a horribly big surprise as I have seen next to no advertising for this film beyond a one week blitz.  Not sure what the thinking was behind this release.

Coming in fifth was Colombiana, which still took a large tumble from last week’s fall, but it was somehow able to lock in the top five with $4 million.

Overall it was an underwhelming weekend, but not surprising as we enter the normally slow fall, and especially in a year that has already seen a downturn in box office revenues.

Next weekend sees no huge releases, but you can expect to see Drive, I Don’t Know How She Does It, a re-release of The Lion King in 3D and the remake of Straw Dogs.

Oh, and where was Conan the Barbarian? In 28th place with an 81% drop in business and the loss of 1,171 theaters, leaving it in only 551 locations. And how much did it bring in? $300,000. This brings its domestic total to $20.9 after three weeks of release and a $90 million budget. We are definitely looking at one of the biggest flops of the year. While Green Lantern didn’t do well, based on percentages, Conan has done even worse.