Johnny Depp’s Big-Screen Return Tracks at $25M–$35M Opening for Dark Christmas Tale “Ebenezer”

Johnny Depp is about to walk back onto the big screen for the first time in eight years — and the industry is watching the numbers. Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol, Ti West’s gothic dark-fantasy reimagining of the Charles Dickens classic, is tracking for a $25–35 million domestic opening weekend when it releases worldwide on November 13, according to Box Office Pro projections reported by Zoom TV on Thursday. Depp stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly Victorian businessman dragged through visions of his past, present and future on a supernatural journey toward redemption.

The film is a genuine curiosity on several fronts. West, best known for his horror trilogy X, Pearl and MaXXXine, directed from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern, with Paramount Pictures marketing the film under the tagline “The name you know, the story you don’t.” The ensemble around Depp is strong: Ian McKellen plays Jacob Marley, Rupert Grint is the underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit, Andrea Riseborough takes the Ghost of Christmas Past, Tramell Tillman the Ghost of Christmas Present, Sam Claflin the nephew Fred, with Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber and Henry Lloyd-Hughes rounding out the cast. The listed production budget is $38 million — modest for a star-led studio release.

Why this matters: this is Depp’s first wide North American theatrical release since 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which opened to $62.1 million domestically. The eight-year gap spans the period when highly publicized legal battles froze his studio career, and since then he has appeared only in smaller independent productions. Ebenezer is effectively Hollywood’s market test of whether one of the industry’s most bankable stars of the 2000s still moves the needle. The trailer, unveiled in mid-October after Depp surprised San Diego Comic-Con by walking on stage in full Scrooge costume — heavy prosthetics, period dress and all — generated some of the loudest buzz of the convention. Paramount followed it with a “Johnny Depp is Ebenezer” featurette on October 14, keeping the momentum rolling into release month.

The projection range itself tells a story about caution. Analysts note the film occupies an awkward genre space: too dark for traditional family holiday fare, yet too rooted in a beloved story to be a pure horror play. Comparisons are telling — David Harbour’s Violent Night opened to $13.4 million and became a sleeper hit, while the similar Silent Night managed just $3 million. A $25–35 million start would sit above both and look respectable against the $38 million budget, but it would also be well short of Depp’s former drawing power: Black Mass debuted to $22.6 million back in 2015 and Mortdecai managed only $4.2 million. For more tales of stars and their career arcs, browse our Did You Know collection of famous personalities.

What to watch next: whether tracking tightens upward in the final two weeks — star-driven comebacks often overperform when general audiences, not just tracking panels, show up — and how the November 13 date positions the film ahead of the crowded December corridor. Australia and Brazil get the film a day early, on November 12, so early international reaction could move the needle on domestic expectations. And beyond the weekend, the real test is legs: a $38 million film with Depp’s core fanbase behind it doesn’t need a record opening; it needs to hold through the Christmas window. If it does, expect every studio with a shelved Depp-adjacent project to start making calls again.