Entertainment

Johnny Depp's Ebenezer Takes $1.5 Million in Previews

Jonah VillalbaPublished just now2 min readBased on 1 source
Johnny Depp's Ebenezer Takes $1.5 Million in Previews
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Paramount's Ebenezer, starring Johnny Depp, took in $1.5 million in previews, according to Variety. Previews are early screenings that run before a film's main opening, and they give the first clue to how audiences may respond.

The film is expected to open with $20 million in the United States and Canada, known as domestic, and another $20 million overseas. Those figures are projections, not final results. The opening weekend, the first three days of release, is when studios usually count the money that matters most for a new film.

Paramount has put a lot behind the picture. The studio spent $38 million to make the film and $50 million to market it, according to Variety. The production budget is what it cost to shoot and finish the movie. The marketing figure covers the advertising, posters and trailers that make people aware it exists. Together, that is $88 million before the film has earned anything back.

Ti West directed the film. Its cast is led by Depp and includes Ian McKellen, Daisy Ridley and Sam Claflin. Rupert Grint plays Bob Cratchit, and the three Christmas spirits are played by Andrew Riseborough, who takes the Ghost of Christmas Past, Tramell Tillman, who plays Christmas Present, and Robert Strange, who plays Christmas Yet to Come.

For Depp, it is a return to a big studio release. Variety notes that Ebenezer is his first major Hollywood film since 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. That film was the third in the Fantastic Beasts series, which spun out of the Harry Potter books and films.

Grint, who was a member of the Harry Potter cast, now appears in a Christmas story as one of the most familiar figures in the tale, Scrooge's put-upon clerk. The film's Christmas setting also places it in one of the busiest parts of the release calendar, when studios often push their biggest titles toward the holiday weekends.

The final numbers will come once the opening weekend is over, when studios report what audiences actually spent at the box office.

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