How will Will Smith remember Winter Solstice 2008? As the weekend he placed second.

Prior to Friday’s premieres, number crunchers were already predicting a close race between headliners Jim Carrey and Will Smith. Unfortunately for Warner Bros., Yes Man‘s ultimate victory felt slightly hollow. The comedy’s $18.2 million gross was nowhere near the figures Carrey used to generate. (Bruce Almighty‘s premiere earned $68 million in 2003; Liar Liar took in $31.4 million in 1997.) Yes did, though, do better than 2005’s Fun with Dick and Jane. (That film raked in $14.1 million during its open.)

Will Smith didn’t have much to celebrate over the last three days either. His latest film, Seven Pounds, only took in $14.8 million. That’s a number almost unheard of in Smith-land. The drama, directed by Pursuit of Happyness’ Gabriele Muccino, was the actor’s lowest grosser since Ali. (That film earned $14.7 million when it debuted in December 2001.)

And while the country’s horrible weather is being understandably blamed for the low box office numbers, the conditions were apparently fair enough for several other movies. The per screen averages for The Wrestler ($50,679), Frost/Nixon ($9694) and Gran Torino ($6243) all bested anything in the Top
Ten.

1. Yes Man, Warner Bros., $18,262,471 (avg. $5318)
2. Seven Pounds, Sony, $14,851,136 (avg. $5385)
3. The Tale of Despereaux, Universal, $10,103,675 (avg. $3255)
4. The Day the Earth Stood Still, 20th Century Fox, $9,890,105 (avg. $2778)
5. Four Christmases, Warner Bros., $7,701,375 (avg. $2191)
6. Twilight, Summit Entertainment, $5,189,319 (avg. $1735)
7. Bolt, Disney, $4,146,856 (avg. $1397)
8. Slumdog Millionaire, Fox Searchlight, $3,053,760 (avg. $5185)
9. Australia, 20th Century Fox, $2,174,188 (avg. $983)
10. Quantum of Solace, Sony/MGM, $2,051,882 (avg. $1095)

(You can review last week’s numbers here.)