IRISH actress Saoirse Ronan, an Oscar nominee this year for her work in Atonement, can add a stinker to her career resume, unfortunately.

City of Ember, in which she stars with Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, opened on Friday, and the public didn't give a hoot. The film, which was shot in Belfast and produced by Tom Hanks' production company, opened in 10th place on the box office chart with an anemic $3.2 million, even though it opened on more than 2,000 screens across the country. Ain't no way it'll even come close to recouping its $38 million in production costs, though maybe the DVD release will help.

Many of the critics, to put in mildly, weren't kind. "To watch the talents of Saoirse Ronan, the brilliant young actress from Atonement, being wasted in the science-fiction juvenilia of City of Ember is to be reminded that a powerful performance needs an equivalent screenplay. In City of Ember, she has nothing to work with," opined The New York Times.

The young Carlow actress, only 14, will survive, though, as she's got a whole host of exciting projects lined up, including the big-screen adaptation of The Lovely Bones, the popular novel by Alice Sebold.

Saoirse was in Belfast last week to attend the film's premiere, and she had a blast.

"It's fantastic to be back in Belfast, I had a brilliant time when I was here," she said.

"To me, it was more important to be here than any other place, even New York. The crew were from here and some of the cast and it was all created here."