Every week we try to bring you a cross section of some of the week’s best viral videos from brands and individuals. In most cases, there’s something we can learn and apply to our own video marketing efforts for every one of the examples–though if you’re only watching for fun, and not for any higher learning purpose, it’s fine by me.

Another week, another fantastic assortment of hilarious and entertaining viral video hits.

Last week we saw the top 2 movies from the previous week switch places and take the top spots from the new releases, as the Ghost Rider sequel failed to emulate any of the success of its predecessor.

I think we can almost officially rule out a correlation between view counts of certain online movie trailers with the kind of money we can expect them to make.

Chronicle 's high view count for its various trailers online did not translate into a super-huge hit, but the movie performed well above expectations, as did the view-deprived Woman in Black .

This past January was a good one for Hollywood, although it goes to show that year-over-year comparisons for specific months is a pretty short-sighted way of looking at this particular business, which entirely relies on product.

20th Century Fox has teamed with Big Frame , a YouTube talent company, to produce videos promoting their new movie Chronicle opening on February 3.

The box office is booming this January.

So Contraband was the ultimate view-getter in the online world, which translated to a nearly $30 million opening weekend, coasting past The Beauty and the Beast 3D re-issue ($23 million), while Joyful Noise did a not-too-shabby $11 million.

OK, so we had a bang-up start of the year last week with The Devil Inside .