‘Ebenezer’ Counts $1.5M In Previews On Thursday; Johnny Depp Pic Hopes For $40M WW Opening

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. Watch on Deadline