By Franck Tabouring
Weekend of December 19 -21, 2008

Jim Carrey’s latest comedy “Yes Man” topped the North American box office this weekend with $18.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

In the Peyton Reed-directed film, Carrey stars as a bitter man who decides to change his life and say yes to everything and anything. For a mainstream Carrey comedy, however, “Man” delivered an unusually low performance at the box office.

Contrary to his recent films, Will Smith’s latest drama “Seven Pounds” also failed to score a big opening, debuting with only $16 million at No. 2. Directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film follows a desperate IRS agent who embarks on a quest to forever change the lives of seven strangers.

New entry “The Tale of Despereaux” collected $10.5 million in third place. Based on the beloved book by Kate DiCamillo, the computer-animated family film tells the adventures of a brave mouse who rescues a princess from the claws of hungry rats.

Click to read more ...

Jim Carrey's "Yes Man" beat Will Smith's "Seven Pounds" at the North American box office Friday with $6.4 million in ticket sales. That's an unusually low performance for a Carrey comedy.

Meanwhile, "Pounds" debuted at No. 2 with only $5.2 million, a rather disappointing result for Smith, whose films usually picked up a lot more on opening day. Following in third place was new entry "The Tale of Despereaux," which collected $3.5 million.

Down to No. 4, last week's winner "The Day the Earth Stood Still" earned $2.8 million, lifting its domestic gross to $41.3 million after a strong one-week run. Seth Gordon's holiday comedy "Four Christmases" followed at No. 5 with $2.2 million, reaching a total haul of $94.6 million.

Other results: "Twilight" ranked sixth with a daily gross of $1.6 million; "Bolt" pulled in $1 million; "Slumdog Millionaire" took home $755,000 from only 589 locations; and "Australia" finished with $625,000.

Source: Box Office Mojo (www.boxofficemojo.com)