Box Office: Johnny Depp’s ‘Ebenezer’ Posts $1.5M Previews
The first big greenlight of Paramount’s new administration since last year’s Skydance merger, Ti West’s edgy PG-13 Ebenezer, saw $1.5M in previews that began at 2PM. The movie for some time has been primed to be Johnny Depp’s comeback at the box office as far as non-franchises go, Paramount lighting that wick back at San Diego Comic-Con with the 3x Oscar nominee’s surprise method actor appearance which brought fireworks to the confab. Ebenezer heading into the weekend hopes to make at least $20M for the weekend for a No. 1 take, and another $20M from 63 markets including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom.
We haven’t had many Christmas-themed family movies post Covid, so comps are hard. Ebenezer‘s take is under the $3.7M previews of Amazon MGM Studio’s Red One which starred Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans (that had action elements where as Ebenezer is spooky, so a hard comp there) and it’s under the $2.2M made by Universal/Illumination’s animated The Grinch back in 2018.
Sony opened Wednesday the Jim Caviezel action movie Ghost Soldier about a former Green Beret who protects his Wyoming neighbors against a ruthless corporation threatening their rural community. It’s booked at 2,558 theaters and opened Wednesday with previews to $2.3M and posted another $800K yesterday for a $3.1M running cume. Those who bought tickets gave it a 90% Rotten Tomatoes audience score and 4 stars on PostTrak while critics are sorry they were taken hostage at 42% Rotten.
