Depp's Ebenezer Leads Box Office With $6.7 Million Opening Day

Johnny Depp is back on top of a box office chart. Ebenezer, Paramount's PG-13 adaptation of A Christmas Carol directed by Ti West, led North America on Friday, November 13, 2026, with $6.7 million from 3,535 theaters. That figure includes $1.5 million from Thursday previews, and it marks Depp's return to a major studio lead after eight years away from one.

The weekend projections are where the argument starts. Variety's range puts the three-day opening at $18 million to $20 million, with roughly another $20 million expected overseas, for a global start near $38 million to $40 million. Paramount held to $20 million or better on Saturday morning, while rival studios tracking the same screens saw the film finishing lower.

The split that matters more is between critics and the people who bought tickets. Reviewers have the film at 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes across 116 reviews. Opening audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore and 4.5 out of 5 stars on PostTrak, and about half of the opening-night crowd said Depp himself was their reason for going. For a holiday release, that word of mouth is the asset.

West comes to Dickens from horror, having directed the X trilogy, and his Ebenezer leans into the ghost story inside the novella rather than the sentiment on its surface. Depp plays Scrooge as a man being haunted, not merely scolded. Premium large-format screens accounted for 36 percent of the opening gross, and the film played evenly across the country rather than spiking in a few big cities.

The economics are unusually forgiving for a studio picture. Paramount produced Ebenezer for about $38 million, a cautious budget for a holiday release, though the marketing spend reported alongside it runs higher, around $50 million. Depp was paid $5 million, a fraction of his past studio salaries, with bonuses tied to how the film performs. A modest opening doesn't sink a film priced like this one.

What decides the outcome is the calendar. A Christmas Carol adaptation opening in mid-November is built to play through December, when family moviegoing peaks and a familiar title with warm audience scores can hold screens week after week. The estimates harden into actuals across Sunday and Monday, and the rival studios will keep trimming their numbers until they do. The Friday crown is real. The verdict waits on the season.

The test comes in two stages. The first is the second weekend, when a front-loaded star opening usually falls hardest and a word-of-mouth opening holds. The second is the long holiday corridor itself, where a family title with an A-minus audience grade can keep collecting modest weekends that add up past its budget. Ebenezer doesn't need a blockbuster December. It needs a steady one, and its opening grades say steady is available.