Jim Carrey’s latest comedy, Yes Man, opened at #1 this weekend edging out Will Smith’s confusing drama, Seven Pounds. Although Carrey had the top spot, he should keep the celebrating to a minimum, as Yes Man opened to a slim $18.2M. Yes Man opened lower than most industry expectations and even performed worse than the dismal Fun With Dick and Jane, Carrey’s last comedy offering (not counting Horton Hears a Who) from 3 years ago. Dick and Jane opened during the holiday season as well, and did go on to make $110M, so Jim has a chance to steer Yes Man into moderate hit territory. I would look for Yes Man to have slim declines over the holiday weeks and wind up with a final gross in the $90M range.

The trailer for Seven Pounds is unique in that it doesn’t give anything away and really gives you no clear idea as to what the movie is actually about. I know, believe me, I’ve watched the trailer about 20 times. I’ve been curious as to how that was going to play out with audiences and even though Seven Pounds was one of Smith’s lowest openings to date, $16M, I still don’t know that the trailer had anything to do with it. Pounds small debut is more a function of bad reviews than anything else, and I believe that if the reviews had been good, it would’ve opened north of $30M. I for one was intrigued by the trailer and despite the reviews, still plan to see Seven Pounds as soon as possible. I’m very rarely disappointed by a Will Smith film. I even half enjoyed the most uneven film in cinematic history, Hancock. Really, I’ve never seen a movie so polarizing. The first half is incredible fun and then all of a sudden, half way through, the movie shifts and becomes horrendous. It’s truly mind blowing.

Opening in third place with a decent $10.5M, was the animated mouse story, The Tale of Despereaux. This was a decent debut for an animated film that is not based on any known property and Despereaux should perform well over the next few weeks with all the kids’ home from school.  Despereaux may find its way to an overall gross in the neighborhood of $70M. To see how the rest of the top 10 played out and how my predictions fared, check out the chart below.