'Ebenezer' leads N America weekend box office

Film's performance will reveal if Johnny Depp can still attract moviegoers after his legal travails

LOS ANGELES:

All eyes are on the box office this weekend as Johnny Depp returns to the big screen in a major Hollywood studio film. 'Ebenezer', director Ti West's gothic take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, is the first real test of whether audiences will show up for Depp in a leading role again.

The stakes are high for everyone involved. It's Depp's first major Hollywood movie since 2018's 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald', and Paramount spent $38 million to produce the film plus another $50 million to market it. 'Ebenezer' is also the first big greenlight from Paramount's new leadership since last year's Skydance merger.

The opening night numbers raised some early concerns. 'Ebenezer' grossed $1.5 million from Thursday previews. That trailed the $3.7 million posted by 'Red One', which included $1 million from Sunday early screenings, and the $2.5 million earned by 'The Lost City'.

Box office analyst Luiz Fernando suggested the film would need strong word of mouth to boost walk-up sales over the weekend. Without it, he warned, the PG-13 fantasy comedy could open between $17 million and $22 million, below the industry's already conservative projections of $20 million to $25 million.

Opening day quickly eased those concerns. 'Ebenezer' earned $7.1 million on Friday, including previews, and Deadline now projects a healthy $20 million-plus opening for a non-franchise Depp movie. The film took the top spot at the domestic box office on Friday, knocking off 'Godzilla Minus Zero' and giving Depp his first No. 1 since 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' in 2018.

The overseas numbers could help too. Paramount expects another $20 million from 63 international markets, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom. A domestic opening near that range would put 'Ebenezer' in line with the starts of Depp's 2015 film 'Black Mass' ($22.6 million) and 2009's 'Public Enemies' ($25.2 million).

Reviews have been mixed. The film has divided critics, holding a 52 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck said the movie achieves its apparent goal of returning Depp to A-list status. Audiences appear warmer than critics so far. World of Reel reported that the film earned a 4.5-star PostTrak score, which could help word of mouth in the weeks ahead.

'Ebenezer' has a strong supporting cast around its star. Rupert Grint plays Scrooge's employee Bob Cratchit, alongside Ian McKellen, Daisy Ridley and Sam Claflin. Tramell Tillman appears as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

The release date also fits the film's spooky tone. It opened in theaters on Friday, November 13, a Friday the 13th launch for a ghost story that Paramount has treated as part of the appeal. The film is playing in more than 3,500 North American theaters.

The bigger test may come in the weeks ahead. Variety reported that Depp earned a $5 million salary, and cinema operators suggested the box office would say more about the movie's quality than about his appeal.

TheWrap added that the hope is for word of mouth to keep the film in theaters into December. If 'Ebenezer' holds up through Thanksgiving and the holiday season, it could reshape how Hollywood sees Depp's comeback. For now, the opening weekend looks solid.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 53% of 116 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Decking its halls with evocative production design while Johnny Depp is filled with the 'bah humbug!' spirit, Ebenezer doesn't scrooge Dickens' classic tale up but plays things too safe to stand out amongst its line long of remakes." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an average 4.5 out of five stars, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend the film.

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a 'C-' rating, calling Depp's performance "insufferable." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle and David Crow of Den of Geek criticized the film's reversal of Dickens' social justice themes, particularly its narrative justification of Scrooge's disdain for the poor and its portrayal of the charitable gentlemen whom Scrooge rebuffs as fraudulent con artists. AGENCIES