Ebenezer Wins Box Office With $19M Opening As How to Rob a Bank Fails
Johnny Depp’s first major Hollywood role since 2018 landed at the box office with a $19 million domestic opening as Paramount’s Ebenezer took the top spot.
Ti West directed the adaptation of A Christmas Carol on a reported $38 million budget alongside a $50 million marketing campaign. The film brought in $42 million worldwide in its opening weekend, according to TheWrap.
Early ticket sales drew an audience consisting primarily of Depp’s most loyal fans. Survey data showed that 50% of those polled named the actor as their primary reason for seeing the movie.
Critics delivered mixed reviews for the seasonal title, but those fans gave the production strong marks with an A- on CinemaScore, 4.5 out of 5 on PostTrak, and a 90% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. The studio now faces the challenge of expanding interest beyond the core fan base during a crowded holiday release window competing against titles positioned in the shadow of Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three.
On the other side of the weekend charts, Amazon MGM’s How to Rob a Bank stumbled with a $5.1 million opening from 2,810 theaters. The $60 million YouTube-tinged crime action comedy starred Nicholas Hoult and was directed by David Leitch.
Reviews for the action comedy leaned negative, accompanied by a B- on CinemaScore, 34% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 78% audience score. Falling outside the top five, the film targets an 18-34 demographic that is expected to shift attention toward Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping or home streaming options like Grand Theft Auto VI.
| Film | Distributor | Budget | Opening Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ebenezer | Paramount | $38 million | $19 million |
| How to Rob a Bank | Amazon MGM | $60 million | $5.1 million |
| The Cat in the Hat | Warner Bros. | $92 million | $11.4 million (Second Weekend) |
| Godzilla Minus Zero | Toho/GKids | Not reported | $8.3 million (Second Weekend) |
| Ramayana: Rise of a Legend | Sony Pictures | Not reported | $5.5 million (Second Weekend) |
Warner Bros. saw steadier numbers for The Cat in the Hat, which held the No. 2 position with an $11.4 million second weekend. That figure marked a 43% drop from its $20.5 million opening.
The family feature opened lower than Illumination’s 2018 adaptation How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but studio executives expressed confidence that holiday audiences will help the title leg out through Thanksgiving. The film holds a $38.2 million domestic and $55.8 million global cumulative total against a $92 million production budget.
Toho and GKids’ Godzilla Minus Zero dropped to third place after leading the box office last weekend. The Japanese production plummeted 73% to an $8.3 million second weekend following a $30.6 million debut.
Despite the frontloaded drop, the film stands just shy of $49 million domestically after two weekends. It is positioned to surpass the $57.1 million U.S. run of its 2023 predecessor, Godzilla Minus One.
Sony Pictures claimed the fourth spot with Nitesh Tiwari’s epic Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, which added $5.5 million in its second weekend to reach a $24.1 million domestic total. Strong traction among diaspora audiences puts the film on track to clear the $28.1 million mark set by Dhurandar 2: The Revenge, which would make it the highest-grossing Indian film ever released in the United States and Canada.
Worldwide, the epic has crossed $120 million, marking the fastest an Indian title has reached that threshold.
More to come….