While a couple of big, violent films with outsized, misanthropic central characters battle it out for the title of Movie of the Year, a waddling, smart-mouthed teenager is on her way to sleeper blockbuster status. Yes, Juno is a big, big hit, and given the way they do things in Hollywood, it's hard to say for sure just how shocked the studio is, though they are having the grace to admit to being pleasantly surprised. In The Los Angeles Times, John Horn writes that "On Monday and Tuesday night, Juno was the No. 1 film in the nation — beating out National Treasure: Book of Secrets and I Am Legend, even though the Fox Searchlight film is playing on slightly more than half as many theaters as those Disney and Warner Bros. blockbusters. This Friday, in its sixth weekend of a quickly building national release. . . Juno will be appearing in about 600 more locations than a week ago, bringing it to a total of about 2,500 locations. Regardless of whether it wins in what will be a close fight for No. 1 over the weekend, Juno within a few days will pass the Oscar-winning Sideways as the top Fox Searchlight release ever." What's striking about this is how much its success has had to do with ticket sales in places like Rice Like, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Nebraska; outside of New York and L.A., bookers found that they couldn't draw a crowd to Sideways if they were offering a Dream Date with Paul Giamatti. (Juno has also been cleaning up in Ellen Page's native Halifax, where moviegoers turned out in force to celebrate the local girl's making good.) The movie is doing great word of mouth business that crosses generational and demographic lines; as for its ability to cater to all comers, including families, Brad Bills of Independent Film Services says"Thank God it's a PG-13." The movie's appeal to people in the heartland may end up setting off a fresh round of arguments about just what it says about this past year's string of movies about likable people who reject abortion as an option, but right now, the one clear thing about it has best been expressed, with charming indelicacy, by Fox Searchlight distribution head Stephen Gilula: "Now it is playing to the mainstream. It's not an art film anymore."