'Yes man' takes the lead

Three new movies opened in wide release this weekend taking over the top three spots at the box office. Despite a lot of star power and high concept premises, none of them were able to gross more than $20 million, attributed in some part to the huge snowstorms that hit the Eastern seaboard and the MidWest on Friday, leading to one of the slowest pre-Christmas box office showings in a long time.

Comedy superstar Jim Carrey headlined the comedy Yes Man (Warner Bros.), which bore a similar premise to his earlier hit Liar, Liar, and though it only grossed $18.2 million in 3,434 theaters over the weekend, it was enough to take the #1 spot this weekend. It opened just ahead of Will Smith's enigmatic drama Seven Pounds (Sony), which made $16 million in 700 fewer theaters, averaging $5,800 per venue. It's the weakest opening for a movie starring Will Smith since Michael Mann's Ali in 2001.

The animated fantasy The Tale of Despereaux (Universal) opened in third place with a disappointing $10.5 million in 3,104 theaters, although it's likely to take advantage of the Christmas holidays to pick up business much like past family Christmas films like Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web.

20th Century Fox's remake of the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves plummeted in its second weekend, dropping 67% to 4th place with $10.1 million to bring its total take to $48.6 million, a far cry from its $80 million production budget.

The holiday comedy Four Christmases (New Line/WB), starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, crossed the $100 million mark this weekend as it dropped to fifth place with $7.7 million.

Sixth and seventh place were taken up by the hit romantic thriller Twilight (Summit Entertainment) with $5.3 million and a total gross of $158 million and Disney's animated Bolt with $4.2 million, which has grossed $95 million after five weeks.

After winning a number of critics' awards and being nominated for a number of SAGs, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) finally broke into the Top 10 with $3.1 million, enough for 8th place. It's grossed $12.1 million without ever playing in more than 600 theaters.

Baz Luhrmann's Australia (20th Century Fox) settled into ninth place with $2.3 million and a total of $42 million, while Sony's Quantum of Solace rounded out the Top 10 with $2.1 million and a total gross of $161.3 million.

Opening in limited release on Wednesday, Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight) starring Mickey Rourke grossed $210 thousand in four theaters over the weekend (averaging a strong $52k per site) and $295 thousand in its first five days.

Click here for the full box office results.

Warner Brothers Developing Marvin the Martian Movie

What have we done to deserve this?! Warner Brothers is officially developing a Marvin the Martian movie as a family feature along the same lines as Racing Stripes or My Dog Skip. The film will be a blend of live action and CGI, similar to something like Alvin and the Chipmunks, I imagine. The story focuses on Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but he is stopped from doing so when he is trapped in a gift box. Unfortunately I don't think Bugs Bunny is going to have anything to do with this. Is it just me, or is this a little bit of a wacky decision for them? I don't even think I know anyone who loves Marvin the Martian? Do we really need an entire movie? Please tell me they know what they're doing!

Marvin was created by Chuck Jones and made his first appearance in a Looney Tunes cartoon in 1948. No other writer or director has been hired yet, although the studio is currently searching for suitable choices. Whenever I hear about projects like this, I think of Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, one of my all-time most hated movies. I can't stand how frickin' awful that movie was and although I know Marvin the Martian has absolutely nothing to do with the Grinch, it's just that similar family film feeling that gets under my skin. This movie could potentially go down that path, too, with the Christmas aspect already in place, so let's just hope they don't screw it up. Is anyone excited by this announcement?!

'Yes Man'... Its a Trailer

I know Jim Carrey's track record has a few blemishes on it, but I have a good feeling about this one. Yes Man has a simple premise -- a no-fun, take-no-chances guy decides to say yes to everything for a year -- and the trailer feels like the ol' Jim we fell in love with back in the '90s.

Plus, the director is Peyton Reed, who will always hold a place in many people's hearts for Bring It On and the under-appreciated Down with Love. Maybe he can keep Carrey's more buffoonish tendencies in check?

We'll find out when the film is released on Dec. 19. In the meantime, watch the trailer and let us know what you think. Can the premise work? Will it wind up being overly wacky or too cartoonish? Do you agree that Zooey Deschanel should appear in more movies?

Next Batman villain revealed?

The original plan – and I don’t think this is giving anything anyway, since we all know how inexorable the killer clown is – was for Heath Ledger to return as The Joker in one more ‘’Batman’’ flick – after this month’s “The Dark Knight”.

It goes without saying that Ledger won’t be back – and according to series’ star Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon), neither will the purple-jacketed villain.

The actor – who sounds about as pleased as piss to be back playing Gordon in the ‘’Batman Begins’’ sequel, and I say that acerbically - tells MovieWeb that The Riddler could be the Rogue Batman faces in sequel number two.

Be interesting to see Chris Nolan’s interpretation of that character – to many, The Ridller’s a zany nimrod that Jim Carrey played in ‘’Batman Forever’’. He was about as threatening as a sprayed fly. No doubt the new ‘Riddler’ will still wear some kind of question-marked costume, but he’ll be a tad more menacing than Ace Ventura’s incarnation. Maybe Paul Bettany? Hey… what about Johnny Depp? Heck, I’ll do it.. if the costume doesn’t ride up my ass!