Paramount's “Ebenezer,” a Ti West adaptation of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” starring Johnny Depp as Scrooge, led the box office on Friday with $6.7 million in opening-day receipts from 3,535 North American theaters. The film is projected to earn $18 million to $20 million over its domestic opening weekend and roughly $38 million to $40 million globally. Paramount produced it on a reported $38 million budget, with a marketing spend of about $50 million. The film is notable as Depp's first major studio movie in eight years, since 2018's “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and marks his return to Hollywood after Warner Bros. removed him from the “Harry Potter” spinoff series in 2020 following a libel case against The Sun and a subsequent defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Depp's fans have driven early interest, with 50% of those surveyed saying the actor was the reason they bought a ticket, and audiences gave the film an A- on CinemaScore and 4.5/5 on PostTrak. Critics were less enthusiastic, offering mixed reviews. Over the past several years Depp had worked mainly in independent and foreign films, including “Minamata,” “Jeanne du Barry” and the biopic “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” which he directed. The challenge for “Ebenezer” will be converting that fan enthusiasm into broader interest as it competes with upcoming releases such as “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” and “Hexed,” and a crowded holiday slate that includes “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three.”S1S2

Among the other new releases, Amazon MGM's “How to Rob a Bank,” a $60 million David Leitch heist comedy starring Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz and Pete Davidson, took in just $2.2 million on Friday from 2,810 locations and is pacing for an opening of about $4.7 million to $4.75 million, placing around No. 7 on the charts. The film has a 33% Rotten Tomatoes score and a B- on CinemaScore, and theater owners keep roughly half of ticket sales. Sony's “Ghost Soldier,” starring Jim Caviezel and produced for $18 million, grossed $1.5 million on Friday and is expected to open to about $4.9 million to $5 million.S1S2

Among holdovers, Warner Bros. Animation's “The Cat in the Hat” is expected to earn about $10 million in its second weekend, a 50% drop from its debut, bringing its domestic total to $36.7 million against a $92 million budget. Toho/GKids' “Godzilla Minus Zero” posted a $7.5 million second weekend, down 75% from its $30.6 million opening, and is on track for an estimated $48 million ten-day total, which would exceed the $57 million U.S. run of its 2023 predecessor, “Godzilla Minus One.”S1S2