Box Office: Johnny Depp's ‘Ebenezer' Leads ($21M+), Audiences Love It More Than Critics Do; ‘How to Rob a Bank' Bombs ($4M+), ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Drops 75%

Say what you want about Johnny Depp, but audiences still show up for him.

"Ebenezer," Depp's PG-13 take on Scrooge, topped the box office on Friday with $6.7M on opening day. It's now headed for a $20M-$21M opening weekend from 3,535+ screens. Add roughly $20M from overseas and you're looking at a global start of around $40M.

That's a good result. Paramount only spent $38M making this thing, so it's already well on its way to profit. As I mentioned yesterday, I had a feeling regular moviegoers would go for it. The film opened in Europe on Wednesday, and the audience scores there have been very strong. Now American audiences agree: an "A-" on CinemaScore and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics are a different story. "Ebenezer" sits at 53% with them on RT. That's a big gap, and it's become a familiar one. Some critics, consciously, or not, write about what they think of Depp. Audiences just want to see him back on screen.

Let's not forget the context here. This is Depp's first major movie in eight years, going back to 2018's "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald." Warner Bros. fired him from the "Harry Potter" spinoff series in 2020 after Amber Heard published her op-ed accusing him of assault. Depp then won the defamation trial against Heard in the U.S., and "Ebenezer" is his comeback attempt. Based on these numbers, it's working.

Sony's "Ghost Soldier" had a quieter debut. The action thriller stars Jim Caviezel as a former American Special Forces soldier and made $1.5M from 2,558 locations on Friday. It's tracking for $4.9M over the three-day weekend and $8M across its first five days. On an $18M budget, that's not a disaster, but it's not much of a win either.

And then there's "How to Rob a Bank." Amazon/MGM's heist comedy made just $2.2M from 2,810 screens on Friday and is on pace for a $4.7M opening. That's ugly when the movie cost around $60M. Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz and Pete Davidson star, and David Leitch directed. The R-rated caper follows a crew of social media-savvy bank robbers who livestream their heists. It got a "B-" on CinemaScore and a weak 33% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Finally, "Godzilla Minus Zero" came in close behind with $2M on Friday. The kaiju sequel should take in about $7.5M in its second weekend. That's a brutal 75% drop from its opening, which suggests the fans all showed up in the first few days. Still, it's at $48M domestic so far, which is impressive for a foreign language movie.