{"id":660974,"date":"2026-11-14T20:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T20:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/660974\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T20:38:11","slug":"ebenezer-box-office-johnny-depp-movie-leads-on-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/660974\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebenezer Box Office: Johnny Depp Movie Leads on Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cEbenezer<\/a>,\u201d an adaptation of \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d starring Johnny Depp<\/a> as Scrooge, led the box office on Friday with $6.7 million on opening day.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe PG-13 take on the Charles Dickens classic is projected to earn $18 million to $20 million from 3,535 North American theaters in its opening weekend. \u201cEbenezer\u201d should bring in another $20 million overseas for a global tally around $38 million to $40 million. That would represent a solid start because Paramount spent a modest $38 million to produce the film. Audiences awarded the movie an \u201cA-\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Directed by Ti West, known for the \u201cX\u201d horror trilogy, \u201cEbenezer\u201d spins the oft-told tale of the curmudgeonly businessman who is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEbenezer\u201d is notable as Depp\u2019s first major movie in eight years, since 2018\u2019s \u201cFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.\u201d Warner Bros. fired him from the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d spinoff series in 2020 after he lost a libel case against the British tabloid The Sun, which called the actor a \u201cwife beater.\u201d Depp won a subsequent defamation trial in the U.S. against his ex-wife Amber Heard, who accused him of domestic abuse. As Hollywood kept a distance, Depp appeared in underseen indies like the 2020 drama \u201cMinamata\u201d and the 2023 period piece \u201cJeanne du Barry\u201d and he directed the 2024 biopic \u201cMod\u00ec, Three Days on the Wing of Madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother newcomer, Sony\u2019s action thriller \u201cGhost Soldier,\u201d starring Jim Caviezel as a former American Special Forces soldier, grossed $1.5 million from 2,558 locations on Friday. It\u2019s expected to generate $4.9 million during the traditional weekend and $8 million over its first five days of release. It was produced for $18 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis weekend\u2019s other new release, Amazon MGM\u2019s \u201cHow to Rob a Bank<\/a>,\u201d is fizzling with $2.2 million from 2,810 theaters on Friday. The heist comedy, starring Nicholas Hoult, Zo\u00eb Kravitz and Pete Davidson, is pacing to open to just $4.75 million. That\u2019s not promising considering the studio produced the movie for more than $40 million, and theater owners keep about half of ticket sales. David Leitch directed the R-rated caper, which follows a crew of social media-savvy bank robbers who broadcast their daring heists, unaware their viral fame has caught the attention of the feds. \u201cHow to Rob a Bank\u201d landed a \u201cB-\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls and tepid 33% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow to Rob a Bank\u201d placed third on Friday, but it\u2019s bracing for No. 7 on weekend box office charts behind several holdovers, including Warner Bros. Animation\u2019s \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d and Gkids\u2019 \u201cGodzilla Minus Zero.\u201d At No. 2, \u201cThe Cat in the Hat\u201d brought in $2.2 million on Friday and looks to generate $10 million by Sunday, a 50% decline from its debut. Those ticket sales would take the domestic total to $36.7 million, a weak tally against a $92 million budget. \u201cGodzilla Minus Zero\u201d wasn\u2019t far behind with $2.1 million on Friday. The kaiju sequel should collect $7.5 million in its second weekend, a harsh 75% drop from its opening. Still, \u201cGodzilla Minus Zero\u201d has been a hit in North America. Those returns will bring the Stateside haul to $48.1 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cEbenezer,\u201d an adaptation of \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d starring Johnny Depp as Scrooge, led the box office on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,266389,156,318558,34102,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-660974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-ebenezer","tag-entertainment","tag-how-to-rob-a-bank","tag-johnny-depp","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}