Johnny Depp is back on top — and this time, he’s doing it as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ti West’s gothic take on ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘Ebenezer,’ won the weekend box office in its opening frame, pulling in a projected $20–21 million domestically after a $6.7 million Friday that included $1.5 million in Thursday previews. Add roughly $20 million overseas and the film is pacing toward a ~$40 million global start — right around its $38 million production budget, covered in a single weekend.

It’s Depp’s first No. 1 at the box office since ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ in 2018, and the numbers tell a comeback story Hollywood will be watching closely: audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore, and half of all moviegoers said Depp himself was the reason they bought a ticket, according to PostTrak.

Critics are more divided — the film sits around 53% on Rotten Tomatoes — but audiences are clearly embracing the darker, moodier Scrooge. Depp stars alongside Ian McKellen, Rupert Grint, Sam Claflin and Daisy Ridley in the film, which opened Friday, Nov. 13 in 3,535 North American theaters.

ToledoBuzz previewed the film’s red-carpet premiere earlier this week — read our first look at Depp as Scrooge here:

Featured image: Johnny Depp at Cannes 2023, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).