While The Golden Compass (No. 1) will be stealing headlines this morning for its lackluster performance—$26 million nationally ($420,000 of that from Manhattan) to offset its reportedly $180 million budget—this weekend’s box office receipts portended the rise of two Academy Award contenders: Jason Reitman’s Juno (No. 2) and Joe Wright’s adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel, Atonement (No. 5).

The comedy starring Ellen Page and Michael Cera averaged an astronomical $63,000 on three screens, beating out Atonement—currently, according to buzz and conventional wisdom, the Oscar forerunner for best picture—which had an impressive $55,000 average on two screens and The Golden Compass, which managed a rather respectable $42,000 average on 10 screens. So, to recap, in a town where neither Atonement, nor The Golden Compass faltered, Juno shined brightest. A Reitman hasn’t been this popular in this city, since the first Ghost Busters in 1984.  read more »

Laura Linney--whom we think of as a certain kind of actress--says she’s the happiest she’s ever been. (Definitely a good thing; see: The Nanny Diaries, The Squid and the Whale, The Truman Show, et cetera ad infinitum.) The 43-year-old actress' new movie The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins and costarring Philip Seymour Hoffman, opens tomorrow. In the film, the esteemed actors do turns playing siblings who are faced with putting their father, played by Philip Bosco, in a nursing home. Ms. Linney’s character, Wendy, a down-and-out playwright fast approaching her 40th birthday, lives in the shadow of her more successful brother, a fellow writer. "For me, things are nothing but good," she said in an interview with Reuters. "For Wendy, she's living like she's 28 [years old] or even 11. She just hasn't had the opportunity to move forward."

Ms. Linney has heaped seven films on her professional plate over the last two years. "I just really enjoy it,” she said. “I find it constantly challenging. It's taken me to parts of the world I never thought I'd see and I've worked with people whom I admire and learned from. It's pretty damn good."