Johnny Depp's 'Ebenezer' Opens With a Shot at No. 1 as a Catholic Review Praises Its 'Silent Night' Faith and a Humbly Penitent Scrooge

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Hollywood is opening its holiday movie season with the most famous redemption story on the Christmas shelf. "Ebenezer," Paramount's new take on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" starring Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge, arrives in theaters nationwide today, Nov. 13, and box office forecasters expect it to lead the weekend.

Boxoffice Pro projected a domestic opening of $20 million to $25 million and described the film as the start of the holiday family-movie season. Gold Derby predicted $22 million, enough to finish ahead of the second weekends of "Godzilla Minus Zero," which it pegged at $13 million, and "The Cat in the Hat," at $11 million. A first-place finish would give Depp his first No. 1 weekend since "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" in 2018, Gold Derby noted.

Directed by Ti West from a screenplay by Nathaniel Halpern, the film surrounds Depp with an ensemble that includes Rupert Grint, Sam Claflin, Tramell Tillman, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Charlie Murphy, ABC News reported. The Oscar-nominated actor walked the red carpet Monday at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London for the film's global premiere, a night that marked his return to a major Hollywood studio production after eight years, according to ABC News. Asked how it felt to be back in Hollywood films, Depp answered with a playful question of his own about what separates a Hollywood film from a French one, the network reported.

Boxoffice Pro framed the weekend as a test of audience appetite for Depp in a major studio picture, since he has not appeared in one since 2018. Its analysts put "Godzilla Minus Zero," released by GKIDS, at $12 million to $17 million in its second frame, and said premium large-format screens should help the Japanese monster film stay ahead of Warner Bros.' "The Cat in the Hat" in what could be a closer race for second place.

West is best known for horror, and his Scrooge is not a cozy one. Even so, the film's Christian heart has drawn notice. The OSV News review, published by the Catholic Standard of the Archdiocese of Washington, praised sequences in which an explicitly religious understanding of Christmas is artfully brought forward, among them a church service and a moving rendition of "Silent Night". The reviewer found that Scrooge's third-act turnaround is marked by more humble penitence than some versions show, and judged the film a "fresh and ethically insightful" telling of a familiar tale.

At RogerEbert.com, the critic gave West more credit than Depp, but read the story as an affirmation of the Christian conviction that even the worst of sinners can repent and work toward redemption. That has always been the point of Dickens' little book: a hard, grasping man is shown the cost of his choices and is given the grace of a second chance on Christmas morning.

Not every critic was won over. IndieWire's David Ehrlich gave the film a C-minus and argued that Depp's Scrooge is too loose and self-amused to persuade audiences that his change of heart is real and lasting. Taken together, the early reviews suggest a film that will divide critics while giving faith-minded viewers more to talk about than the typical holiday release.

Families planning a Christmas-season outing should look before they buy tickets. The film carries a PG-13 rating, and the OSV News review warned of heavy occult and supernatural material, some grisly images, a few mild oaths and a single crude term. West's ghosts are meant to frighten, which makes this version a better match for teenagers and adults than for young children, who may be happier with one of the many gentler adaptations already on the family shelf.

For Paramount and for Depp, the weekend is a genuine test of audience appetite. A strong opening would also suggest that a classic told with conviction, and anchored by a familiar star, can still fill seats ahead of the Thanksgiving rush.