Ebenezer (2026): Johnny Depp as Scrooge — Release Date & Cast

Some Christmas films arrive quietly. Ebenezer is not one of them. On Friday 13 November 2026, Paramount puts Johnny Depp back on the big screen as Ebenezer Scrooge — and the director holding the camera is Ti West, the horror filmmaker behind the X trilogy. That pairing alone tells you what kind of film this is: not another cosy, candlelit A Christmas Carol, but a darker, more Gothic retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic, built for a horror director’s eye and a star making his big-screen comeback.

It is a bold swing. Dickens’ story is the most-filmed Christmas tale in cinema history, and every generation gets the Scrooge it deserves. This one gets a Scrooge played by one of the most famous actors alive, directed by a filmmaker who made his name scaring audiences, arriving in theatres on a Friday the 13th. The tracking numbers disagree with each other by a wide margin, and the early buzz, by one preview’s own description, has been “decidedly negative”. Here is everything we know.

Ebenezer Release Date — When and Where to Watch

Ebenezer opens in theatres on Friday 13 November 2026, released by Paramount. It is a theatrical release, and its opening weekend will be watched closely as Depp’s return to a major studio film in a leading role.

The date itself is doing some of the marketing. A horror-leaning Christmas film opening on a Friday the 13th is a deliberate piece of scheduling: the film gets the spooky date and the Christmas season in the same breath. It arrives a full six weeks before Christmas Day, giving it the whole festive run to find its audience. For now, the way to watch Ebenezer is in a cinema: there is no streaming date attached to the release, and the theatrical opening is the event the film’s whole campaign is built around.

Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge — The Comeback Role

The headline here is the casting. Johnny Depp returns as Ebenezer Scrooge in what is being positioned as his big-screen comeback role — the lead of a major studio film, front and centre of the poster, carrying the most famous Christmas character in literature on his shoulders.

It is a canny choice of role for a comeback. Scrooge is one of the great character parts: a miser transformed across a single night by ghosts, a role that demands both menace and vulnerability in the same performance. Depp has built his career on transformative character work, and Scrooge gives him a character who is, by design, unrecognisable at the start of the story and redeemed by the end of it. The poster sells exactly that — Depp in a tall black top hat, candle in hand, face half in shadow, with the ghosts crowding in behind him. This is not a quiet supporting appearance or a small independent film: it is Depp headlining a Paramount Christmas release, in a role audiences have known since childhood.

Ti West’s Gothic Take — Why This Scrooge Is Different

If Depp is the reason people will buy a ticket, Ti West is the reason this Christmas Carol looks and feels different from every other one. West directed the X trilogy, the horror series that made him one of the genre’s defining filmmakers, and Ebenezer is his take on Dickens — a darker, more Gothic retelling of A Christmas Carol rather than a straight adaptation.

That matters because Dickens’ story was always a ghost story first. The novella opens with a dead man in chains and spends its most famous scenes with spirits, graveyards and a vision of a lonely grave. Most adaptations soften that edge into sentiment. A horror director has no reason to. West’s version leans into the supernatural machinery of the story — the chains, the fog, the graveyard, the hooded figure of the future — and treats the ghosts as frightening before they are instructive.

The Gothic label matters too. Gothic means atmosphere as much as horror: candlelight, fog, old London streets, a counting house that feels like a tomb. It is a visual language that suits both Dickens and West, and it is what separates this Ebenezer from the many warm, bright versions of the story that fill television every December. This Scrooge is different because his night is genuinely frightening — and the film is betting that audiences want their Christmas ghost story to actually feel like a ghost story.

The Story — Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Retold

The story itself needs little introduction, and that is part of the film’s appeal. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol follows Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman who hates Christmas, and the single supernatural night that changes him. It begins with the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, arriving in chains to warn him that three spirits will visit him before the night is over.

The three ghosts — of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come — show Scrooge his own life from every angle: the boy he was, the man he has become, and the lonely end waiting for him if nothing changes. By morning, the miser who began the night counting coins is a changed man.

What a darker, more Gothic retelling changes is not the structure but the temperature. The ghosts are scarier, the shadows are longer, and the stakes feel more like a haunting than a lesson. The redemption still has to land — without it, there is no Christmas Carol at all — but the road to it runs through a colder, stranger night than the one most versions show.

Ebenezer Cast — Who Plays Who

The cast is small and every name in it carries weight — and the film’s most inspired piece of casting may be the man in chains.

Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley is the casting that anchors the whole film. Marley is the story’s engine: the dead partner who drags his chains into Scrooge’s rooms and delivers the warning that sets the night in motion. McKellen, one of the great stage and screen actors, gives the ghost the gravity it needs — a Marley who is terrifying because he is believable. The official stills show him at Scrooge’s desk by candlelight, quill in hand, every inch the Victorian businessman who never escaped his own counting house.

The three ghosts are played by three very different performers, and that is the point. Andrea Riseborough plays the Ghost of Christmas Past, the spirit who takes Scrooge back to the boy he was. Tramell Tillman plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, the spirit of the Christmas happening right now, outside Scrooge’s window. And Robert Strange plays the Ghost of Christmas Future — the silent, hooded figure who shows Scrooge the grave waiting for him.

Ebenezer Box Office — Budget, Tracking and the Big Spread

The numbers around Ebenezer tell a story of their own — and it is a story of disagreement. The film was made for a reported budget of $38 million, a mid-range figure for a studio Christmas release: large enough to build a convincing Gothic London, modest enough that the film does not need a record-breaking opening to survive.

The opening-weekend forecasts, though, are a long way apart. Boxoffice Pro is tracking the film for a $25–35 million opening weekend — a solid, workable number that would put it well on the way to covering its budget in its first three days. But the November preview that carried that tracking also offered its own prediction, and it was far more cautious: a $10–20 million opening and a $40–75 million total. Those two forecasts do not even overlap. One sees a $25 million-plus opening; the other sees a film that might not reach $20 million at all.

That spread is worth paying attention to, because it tells you how uncertain the film’s commercial prospects are. A $25–35 million opening would make Ebenezer a comfortable success story for a $38 million film. A $10–20 million opening would leave it needing long legs through the Christmas season to get back to its budget. And the preview’s own total range — $40–75 million — straddles the $38 million budget itself, so even the cautious forecast leaves open a path to profitability if the film holds well through December. What neither forecast can capture is the Depp factor: comeback narratives are notoriously hard to model, and the gap between the two forecasts is the market admitting exactly that.

Early Buzz — What the Tracking Is Really Saying

One more fact, handled carefully: the same November preview that carried the box office tracking described the film’s early buzz as “decidedly negative” — the preview’s characterisation of the conversation around the film, not a review, a verdict or a box office prediction.

Early buzz and final results are different things. Buzz is a snapshot of the chatter before release; it can be wrong in both directions, and horror-leaning films in particular have a history of tracking softly and overperforming with audiences who show up for the experience rather than the discourse. The right way to read a “decidedly negative” buzz note is as context for the cautious forecast, not as a judgement on the film itself. The film opens on 13 November, and the only number that will matter then is the one on the box office chart.

Why Ebenezer Matters This Christmas Season

Step back from the tracking and the buzz, and the reason Ebenezer matters is simple: a Gothic horror take on Dickens, led by Johnny Depp, is the Christmas season’s biggest swing.

It also sets the tone for a crowded festive run. Shah Rukh Khan’s King is another of the season’s big Christmas releases, and Salman Khan’s Maatrubhumi reaches theatres in early December — so the weeks after Ebenezer opens are packed with major films competing for the same festive audience. And if you would rather stay in this week, Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 arrives on Prime Video on 12 November, the day before Ebenezer hits cinemas. Go for Depp’s return, stay for the ghosts: a Christmas ghost story that actually wants to scare you is rarer than it should be.

Ebenezer FAQs

When is Ebenezer released?

Ebenezer opens in theatres on Friday 13 November 2026, released by Paramount. It is a theatrical release, arriving six weeks before Christmas Day.

Who plays Ebenezer Scrooge in Ebenezer?

Johnny Depp plays Ebenezer Scrooge. It is his big-screen comeback role, headlining a major studio film as the miser at the centre of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Who directed Ebenezer?

Ti West directed Ebenezer. West made his name with the X trilogy, and his version of Dickens’ story is a darker, more Gothic retelling of A Christmas Carol.

Who plays Jacob Marley and the three ghosts in Ebenezer?

Ian McKellen plays Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead business partner. The three ghosts are played by Andrea Riseborough (Ghost of Christmas Past), Tramell Tillman (Ghost of Christmas Present) and Robert Strange (Ghost of Christmas Future).

What is Ebenezer’s box office tracking?

Ebenezer was made for a reported budget of $38 million. Boxoffice Pro is tracking a $25–35 million opening weekend, while the November preview’s own prediction was a $10–20 million opening and a $40–75 million total. The preview also described early buzz as “decidedly negative” — that is tracking and buzz, not a verdict on the film.