Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer Projects $20M Weekend, Box Office Reports

Paramount Pictures and director Ti West launched “Ebenezer” in North American theaters on Friday, November 13, pulling in $6.7 million on opening day and pointing toward a weekend haul between $18 million and $20 million.

Dickens Adaptation Tops the Box Office on Opening Day

The $38 million PG-13 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic topped the box office on opening day.

Rival studios initially projected lower figures, while ticket sales on opening night saw lighter turnout among fans of the director’s genre work, according to industry tracking reported by Deadline. Even so, the opening sits close to the debuts of the actor’s previous non-franchise vehicles, such as 2015’s “Black Mass” and 2009’s “Public Enemies”. Other new arrivals included Sony Pictures releasing an action movie in 2,558 North American locations on Wednesday.

Paramount Secures Project with Reduced Salary for Depp

The film marks the actor’s first major studio release in eight years, since Warner Bros. released “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” in 2018, following an extended absence from mainstream Hollywood productions. To mitigate financial risk, Paramount secured the project on a modest scale as the first big greenlight of the studio’s new administration following last year’s Skydance merger.

Where Depp once fetched $25 million up front for 2017’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” he accepted a reduced salary of roughly $5 million for this role in exchange for a larger share of box office proceeds.

As Hollywood kept a distance, the actor previously appeared in underseen independent projects like the 2020 drama “Minamata” and the 2023 period piece “Jeanne du Barry” directed by Maiwenn, and he directed the 2024 biopic “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness.” Executive producer Nellee Holmes previously worked with the actor on the 2023 French film that cast him as Louis XV.

Reviewers Describe Lead Performance as a Grotesque Caricature

Ti West directed the feature with an aesthetic reminiscent of Hammer horror, casting the 19th-century setting as a gloomy, haunted city.

Reviewers said that the surrounding supporting cast—including Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, Sam Claflin as Fred, Andrea Riseborough as the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Ian McKellen as a living Jacob Marley—shared counting house scenes with the miserly Ebenezer.

Regarding the lead performance, the sources do not contain this assessment. While Depp has never been the subtlest of actors, his performance in “Ebenezer” has been described as a grotesque caricature of his former charm, leaving some critics unable to empathize with his screen presence.

Audiences leaving theaters awarded the picture an A- on CinemaScore exit polls, reflecting strong demographic turnout.

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