Paramount’s Ebenezer will test whether star Johnny Depp can still draw a crowd as the Charles Dickens adaptation is the widest new release in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend.
Opening in 643 locations, Ebenezer is Depp’s first US studio film in eight years, following Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald which launched with £12.3m from 677 sites in 2018 and climbed to a £34m cume.
The actor was once a massive box-office draw with both 2016’s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (£54.7m) and 2006’s Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (£52.6m) making the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time in the territory.
He has since faced legal and personal troubles which saw him drop out of the spotlight in 2018 although he has had roles in several smaller European projects including 2023 Cannes opener Jeanne Du Barry, which grossed £37,000.
Ti West directs Ebenezer which takes on the classic Dickens novel A Christmas Carol. Further cast includes Ian McKellen, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Andrea Riseborough, Rupert Grint and Tramell Tillman.
The film launches in the UK exactly one year after Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood-inspired iteration of Dickens, Christmas Karma, which was distributed in 434 sites by the now-defunct True Brit Entertainment. That feature, which received a critical bruising, opened on £488,000 for an eventual £1.3m cume. More successful adaptations include 2009 Jim Carrey animation A Christmas Carol (£20.4m) and 1998’s Bill Murray feature Scrooged (£3.6m).
Cannes winner ‘Fjord’ debuts
Elsewhere, Sony is launching UK courtroom drama Prima Facie in 415 venues. Cynthia Erivo stars in the adaptation of the one-woman play about a lawyer who defends men accused of sexual crimes, and then becomes the victim of one. Susanna White directs the film which premiered in Toronto earlier this year to mixed reviews. It may struggle to match that of the NT Live screening of the Olivier award-winning play, which starred Jodie Comer and grossed £9m in the UK and Ireland across two runs in 2022 and 2024.
Sony is also opening heist comedy How To Rob A Bank in 367 cinemas. David Leitch’s film follows a group of bank robbers who post their heists on social media. Nicholas Hoult, Pete Davidson, Zoe Kravitz and Christian Slater are among the cast. Leitch’s last film, 2024’s The Fall Guy, debuted with £3.6m and finished on a £12.4m cume.
This year’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord opens in 87 venues via Picturehouse Entertainment. Cristian Mungiu’s film follows a conservative Christian family who move to Norway from Romania and come up against the country’s more progressive values.
Mungiu’s highest-grossing film currently is 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (£301,000) but Fjord will have the added benefit of its stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. It is also Romania’s entry for best international feature at the Oscars.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing has children’s animation Festive Fun With Peppa playing in 600 sites on Saturday (November 14) and live opera Carmen screening in 193 sites after opening on Tuesday (November 10).
In re-releases, Park Circus has Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette in 143 locations for its 20th anniversary while Studiocanal screens 1967’s The Man Who Fell To Earth in 49 locations.
From the streamers comes US war film The Mosquito Bowl via Netflix and Toronto opener Being Heumann via Apple.
Documentaries out this weekend include the Billie Jean King story Give Me The Ball! via Miracle Comms; a look at bowel cancer with 1 In 2 via Guerilla Films; Iranian IDFA winner A Fox Under A Pink Moon via DocHouse; and Vincent Munier’s wild forest doc Whispers In The Woods via Dartmouth Films.
Further releases include Canadian drama 100 Sunset via Day For Night.
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