As the world experiences some shutdowns (flights and the FAA included), we’re more privy to a better weekend than last year, despite not having a single $ 20-million-plus opener. Well, at least we have GTA 6 for gamers, Thanksgiving, and a sky-high plan for December with Avengers: Doomsday, Dune 3, and Jumanji 4.
Anyway, Ebenezer is neither a glorious comeback triumph for Johnny Depp nor an embarrassing move for Skydance/Paramount. A $42 million global debut, including $19 million in North America, isn’t an enthralling take, but there is sheer optimism given the upcoming holidays and potential legs. For Johnny Depp, the raw opening weekend gross is in line with the $16-$25 million debuts of The Tourist, Secret Window, Black Mass, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Public Enemies. Pirates of the Caribbean would make him a global A-list caliber star until his career took a major hit with the news stemming from ex-wife Amber Heard’s allegations of domestic abuse that would lead into the infamous public trial in 2023. However, even if we look beyond Jack Sparrow or the occasional Tim Burton outing, most of his films in the 2000s and 2010s were pretty chaotic in terms of box office performance or overall quality. His last non-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean rate-of-return success was The Tourist ($277 million on a $100 million budget) at the end of 2010, and his last “big” Hollywood story was Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which grossed $655 million globally in late 2018, despite being a vastly subpar outing to its predecessor. All right, tough nitpicking aside, it should be able to justify its $40 million budget by legging out for the holiday months and giving some sense that maybe, emphasis on maybe, Depp might be back.
Warner Bros.’ The Cat in the Hat grossed $11.4 million in weekend two, for a $38 million ten-day domestic total and $51.36 million worldwide. Not-so-good news domestically and very poor news globally. Godzilla: Minus Zero earned $8.3 million (-73%) in its second weekend, bringing its domestic cume to $48.8 million. Even falling in spirit to an anime sequel or a proshot presentation and the biggest such decline for a Godzilla movie in North America, we’re still looking at a $60- 65 million domestic finish. It has passed $80 million worldwide.
Ramayana: Rise of a Legend will soon pass Dhurandhar The Revenge ($28 million) as India’s biggest North American earner and could end its run with around $35-$40 million domestically. However, how it will justify its overseas gross on a whopping $220 million budget is beyond yours truly. Don’t make the same mistakes when making a grand universe/IP. You Can See Everything held firm with another $5.47 million and brought its domestic cume to $89 million. It may be passing $100 million domestically a few days before Thanksgiving, and once it does so, it will only be behind Bad Grandpa ($102 million in 2013), Jackass 3D ($117 million in 2010), Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119 million in 2004), and Taylor Swift: The ERAS Tour ($175 million in 2023) for documentaries.
Newcomers Ghost Soldier and How to Rob a Bank opened with $5.2 million and $5.175 million, respectively. Wildhorse Nine earned $4.6 million in its second weekend, Wildwood earned $4.37 million in its fourth weekend, and Clayface earned $3.725 million in its fourth weekend.
Next weekend sees the release of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Elsinore, Josephine, Best Pancakes in the County, and The Vile.
