It’s the cycle of nature. Every year, the studios serve their finest for the holidays, projects chock full of high tone and blue chip casts. This year there was the usual deluxe assortment: literary adaptation (True Grit), drug addiction (The Fighter), madness and artistry (Black Swan), and physical disability, historical drama and royalty (The King’s Speech).

Then comes January. The good stuff runs out and they bring out the cheap wine, hoping we’re too drunk to notice. So we get the likes of Country Strong, Season of the Witch, The Green Hornet and The Dilemma.

Starring the peculiarly charmless Vince Vaughn as Ronny and Kevin James (The King of Queens) as Nick, his purported bosom buddy/business partner/mechanical genius (more on that later), The Dilemma also features as Jennifer Connelly (Beth) and Winona Ryder (Geneva) as their respective love interests, both actresses dark-haired, kohl-rimmed, wraith-thin and hard-faced.

Of course it’s totally preposterous that either woman would ever go out with the likes of Vaughn or James, and pigs will scrapbook before we see the likes of Jude Law movie-dating the likes of America Ferrara (the only female star under 50 who comes to mind who’s remotely overweight). But hey, that’s the glorious misogynistic magic of Hollywood.

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After hearing about Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark’s preview night, who wouldn’t want to adapt a film to a live musical? Well it seems that producer Peter Billingsly, who played Ralphie in the 1983′s A Christmas Story is ready to bring the adaptation to the world, and pretty soon!

Not many know, but after Billingsly portrayed Ralphie, he went on to team up with Jon Favreau & Vince Vaughn and produce some of their bigger comedies such as Four Christmases, The Break Up, and Couples Retreat. It looks like Billingsly is readying the musical for this month, and even has some previews happening this week. From THR.

With previews beginning Wednesday at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre (and running Dec. 9-30), A Christmas Story: The Musical! will remain loyal to the film adaptation of Jean Shepherd’s short stories and includes an original score from Broadway composing duo Benj Paske and Justin Paul.

Though Turn Off The Dark really did fail pretty hard in it’s preview this week, this production could see a different outcome. What’s the next film to get a musical adaptation? Could we see Favreau’s Elf make it’s way to the stage next?

To be honest, we don’t know a lot about director Ron Howard’s latest film The Dilemma. Sure, it stars Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder and looks to be pretty funny, but you just never know.

Fortunately, to help decide if this one’s worth a look we’ve got a brand new trailer for the film to share with you (and us) today. In it, Vaughn’s character discovers that his best friend (James) doesn’t really have the perfect marriage after all when he sees the man’s wife with someone else. Yes, that someone else is tanned and tattooed Channing Tatum. But hey, what are you gonna do?

Actually, that’s the question that plagues Vaughn in the film: What is he going to do? Does he tell his friend or let it go? Quite a dilemma. See what I did there?

The Dilemma is scheduled to hit theaters in January 2011. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Here’s your weekly Box Office report. Studio estimates are from Box Office Mojo. Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau should be feeling pretty good about themselves this Monday morning.  Their film Couples Retreat received a critical drumming, but still made $35M over the weekend.  The likability of the two stars helped the film overcome negative buzz, and with no new competition, it easily won the weekend.

Zombieland looks like it will be sticking around for a while.  It only dropped 39% from its opening weekend and made$15M, which is impressive for a horror movie. A month after its release, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is still in the top five, and made $12M. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 continue to pull in audiences, dropping just 38% from last week for $7.6.

The real story of the weekend is the phenomenal performance of Paranormal Activity.  The film only played on 160 theaters in the entire country, and made over $7M! To put that in perspective, Surrogates came in at #6 this weekend. It played on 2,992 screens and made $4.1 million for a per screen average of $1,375.  The per screen average for Paranormal Activity was $44, 163. That’s unheard of.

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Looking for some highbrow comedy? Keep on looking. If you loved the trailer for this movie, go watch it again. There, now you know the entire plot and you have seen all the funny parts of the film. I  just saved you an hour and 47 minutes and at least ten bucks. You’re welcome.

It’s not that this is a terrible film, it just doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Couple’s Retreat tries to be the rom-com version of  The Hangover, and fails. The laughs are there, but they are anemic at best and spread too thin over a far too long running time.

Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are a tightly wound yuppie couple who pull their friends aside at a child’s birthday party and ask them to attend a quick presentation. Believing that they are going to see another power point presentation about testicular cancer prevention, the friends are stupefied when the couple announces that they are considering a divorce. Seems a year of fertility issues has taken a toll on the couple, and they are ready to part ways.

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As it’s released with prints of Public Enemies, the first trailer for the new Universal comedy starring Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, and Jon Favreau has hit the web. The film is about four couples that are having trouble staying afloat, so they all decide to take a vacation to a wacky tropical island filled with wackier people to help make their relationships work. Laughing yet?

The trailer doesn’t make the film look very good, which isn’t surprising since its the same team that brought us 2006′s The Break Up and 2008′s Four Christmases. The film is directed by Peter Billinglsy, long-time friend of Favreau’s, but we know him more as Ralphie from 1983′s A Christmas Story. Overall, the film kind of looks like a less fun, over 30 version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Couples Retreat also stars Kristen Bell, Malin Ackerman, Faizon Love, and Kristen Davis and will hit theaters October 9 of this year. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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