Ebenezer Tops Friday Box Office as Johnny Depp Lands First No. 1 Since 2018
Johnny Depp is back on top of the American box office. His gothic retelling of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer, took the No. 1 spot on Friday, November 13, earning $7.1 million on its opening day, according to Deadline. The result gives Depp his first chart-topping film since Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018, and it puts the Paramount release on course for a domestic opening weekend north of $20 million.
The Friday figure includes $1.5 million from Thursday preview screenings that began at 2 p.m. A similar amount, around $20 million, is expected from 63 international markets, which would take the worldwide opening toward $40 million against a reported production budget of $38 million.
A comeback measured in tickets
Paramount booked Ebenezer into 3,535 theaters in North America, with premium-format screenings in Dolby Cinema, large-format auditoriums, 4DX and D-Box. Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro framed the opening against Depp’s own history, noting that the projected $20 million-plus start sits close to where the actor’s 2015 drama Black Mass ($22.6 million) and 2009 crime film Public Enemies ($25.2 million) began.
The film it displaced is no soft target. Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero opened last weekend with a record-shattering $31.6 million, the biggest debut ever for a live-action foreign-language film in North America. In its second weekend it is heading for roughly $8 million, a steep 74% drop. Behind the top two, Warner Bros. Animation’s The Cat in the Hat is in second place overall with a $2.9 million second Friday and a projected $12 million weekend.
A darker Dickens
Directed by Ti West, fresh off his X horror trilogy, and written by Nathaniel Halpern, Ebenezer is a darker, more supernatural reading of Dickens’ classic. Depp plays a heavily aged Ebenezer Scrooge, with Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley, Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Andrea Riseborough and Tramell Tillman as the ghosts, and Daisy Ridley and Sam Claflin rounding out the family. The film runs 116 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating.
It is Depp’s first major Hollywood leading role since 2022 and the first big greenlight of Paramount’s new administration since last year’s Skydance merger. Paramount has treated the film as the central test of Depp’s box office drawing power since his return to studio filmmaking.
Critics split, audiences warmer
Critical reception remains divided. The film’s Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score is hovering around 50%, with Deadline putting it at 53% and a Metacritic score of 47 reported by Variety. Audiences have been kinder: early PostTrak exit polling gave the film 4.5 stars and a 63% definite-recommend rating.
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Why this matters
The Friday result answers the question Paramount has been asking since it greenlit the film: will American audiences still buy a ticket for Johnny Depp? The early answer is a qualified yes. A $20 million-plus opening for a non-franchise, star-driven vehicle is a solid result in the current market, and it is the kind of number that reopens conversations the industry has kept on hold for years, including the long-running question of Depp’s future with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Depp reportedly took a pay cut to star in Ebenezer, a bet on his own back-end value that now looks better with every ticket sold. If the film holds through Thanksgiving and December — Christmas movies tend to have longer legs than almost anything else on the calendar — the industry read will be less about this movie and more about whether Depp’s exile from major studio filmmaking is functionally over.
Latest developments
Weekend estimates due on Sunday will confirm the full three-day opening figure and the size of Ebenezer’s lead at the top of the chart. The film’s international rollout across 63 markets will determine whether the worldwide opening reaches the projected $40 million.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Ebenezer make on Friday?
Ebenezer earned $7.1 million on Friday, November 13, including $1.5 million from Thursday preview screenings, according to Deadline. It was the No. 1 film at the domestic box office.
When was Johnny Depp’s last No. 1 movie?
Depp’s last No. 1 film was Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018. Ebenezer is his first chart-topper since then.
What is Ebenezer’s projected opening weekend?
The film is pacing toward a domestic opening north of $20 million, with a similar figure expected from 63 international markets, for a worldwide opening of around $40 million.
What do critics and audiences think of Ebenezer?
Critics are split, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score hovering around 50% and a Metacritic score of 47. Audiences have been warmer, giving it 4.5 stars on PostTrak with a 63% definite-recommend rating.
The full weekend numbers on Sunday will tell the complete story, but Friday already delivered the headline Paramount wanted: Johnny Depp, in a gothic ghost story released on Friday the 13th, is No. 1 at the American box office again. For a comeback eight years in the making, that is a strong first step.
Sources
- Deadline — Box Office: Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer Opening to $20M+
- MovieWeb — Johnny Depp Officially Returns to the Top
- The Hype Magazine (Variety) — Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer Makes $1.5 Million in Previews
- SSBCrack News — Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer Eyes $20M+ Opening
