“Vantage Point,” the gimmicky thriller that examines and re-examines the shooting of an American president from witnesses’ differing angles, took over the No. 1 ranking at North American box offices in its debut weekend. Starring Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox and Sigourney Weaver, the Columbia Pictures release drew an estimated $24 million, according to the tracking company Media by Numbers. Each of the previous weekend’s top films slipped a notch. “Jumper” (Fox) dropped to second place on a gross of $12.65 million, just ahead of “The Spiderwick Chronicles” (Fox and Nickelodeon) with $12.6 million. Fourth place went to “Step Up 2 the Streets” (Buena Vista), which took in $9.7 million. The No. 5 film was “Fool’s Gold” (Warner Brothers), with $6.2 million. “Juno” (Fox Searchlight) passed the $130 million mark in its 12th week in release, and “The Counterfeiters” (Sony Pictures Classics) led the competition in its debut by taking in an average of $12,559 on each of the eight screens where it played. “Vantage Point,” by comparison, averaged $7,621 a screen.
