Assassination Thriller 'Vantage Point' Took Box Office Lead

The political thriller "Vantage Point" became the number one film at the North America Box Office over the three-days weekend ended on Sunday, February 24. The Dennis Quaid-starrer film about the assassination of a U.S. president through the eyes of eight witnesses pieced together $22.9 million on its weekend debut.

Opened on approximately 3,800 screens at 3,149 theaters, the film attracted many male as well as young audience. According to Sony's exit polling, 52% of the audience was male and 51% was under the age of 30 years old. With the earning that almost doubling the grossing of last week's champion "Jumper", the heavily promoted film starring also Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker knocked the Hayden Christensen-starrer film from the top box office position.

On the success the Pete Travis-directed thriller garnered, the president of box office tracker Media By Numbers Paul Dergarabedian commented, "Audiences really love it when they get a summer-style popcorn movie at a time of the year when they don't expect it." Rory Bruer, Sony president of distribution added, "It's fresh with lots of twists and turns. Audiences become very invested in it."

On the part of "Jumper", the sci-fi adventure film, which slipped to the third slot, experienced a 53.5% decrease in sales and thus pulled in $12.7 million in its second week screening. The 20th Century Fox's film narrowly missed the runner-up spot as its rival fantasy film "The Spiderwick Chronicles" had a better sales with the grossing $13.1 million. Further, the fourth spot went to dancing drama film "Step Up 2 the Streets" with $9.6 million, while Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson's treasure hunters film "Fool's Gold" slipped to the fifth position grossing $6.6 million.

On the sixth place was "Definitely, Maybe" drawing in $5.2 million on its second week being previewed at the theaters. Meanwhile, the nest two places saw a similar earning of "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" and "Juno". The Martin Lawrence's family comedy and the Ellen Page's acclaimed drama comedy which were placed in respective order in the seventh and eighth position grossed as much as $4.2 million.

Shooting to the ninth slot was the newcomer "Be Kind Rewind". The Michel Gondry's comedy starring Jack Black has pulled in $4.1 million in its debut weekend. Additionally, rounding up the top ten box office was acclaimed crime drama "There Will Be Blood". Climbing two spots from its position last week, the multiple awards-winning movie came back to the top ten position with the earning of $2.7 million.