It’s the biggest Hollywood comeback campaign in living memory: Johnny Depp’s attempt to return to movie stardom.
A decade after allegations of domestic abuse (which he denied) sent Depp’s Hollywood career into a downward spiral, a meltdown that culminated in a lurid defamation trial in 2022, Paramount Pictures is betting that audiences are ready to embrace him again. The studio will make Depp the face of its Thanksgiving offering, “Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol.”
“The master of misfits returns,” Paramount proclaims in the film’s trailer, released Thursday. It then cuts to a heavily made-up Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge. Almost breaking the fourth wall, Depp rasps: “It’s good to be back.”
It will be Depp’s first Hollywood film in nearly eight years, since Warner Bros. forced him out of the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise and Disney abandoned talks with him for a sixth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. In the defamation trial, where Depp accused his ex-wife, Amber Heard, of damaging his reputation and career by falsely portraying him as an abuser, his manager testified that the star would earn about $22.5 million to reprise his “Pirates” role as Captain Jack Sparrow. (He won the case).
Will parents be willing to take their children to see a Christmas classic, one of the culture’s quintessential moral redemption stories? Large sections of Generation Z know Depp as much from the defamation trial, which became a TikTok phenomenon, as from his films. Will you go out to see it in theaters?
The “Ebenezer” trailer attracted more than 6 million views on Paramount’s main YouTube account in its first 18 hours. If Paramount is successful, will other studios (perhaps even Disney, concerned about its image) make deals with it again? Depp, whose acting has been limited to small foreign films in recent years, already has a second major film: In March, Lionsgate will release “Day Drinker,” a supernatural action film co-starring Penelope Cruz. He received an estimated $10 million for the role.
“I see a path for him, particularly because Hollywood needs this comeback,” said Miranda Banks, a professor of film, television and media studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “There is an incredible lack of compelling stars who can release films globally.”
Paramount declined to comment, as did Depp’s representatives.
The studio began its campaign for Depp in April, when it brought the mustachioed actor on stage at CinemaCon, a convention for movie theater owners. Depp deferentially said it had been an “extraordinary privilege” to play Scrooge, a character he had “been obsessed with since I was a little boy.” The attendees gave him a standing ovation.
The public phase of the studio’s campaign began Thursday at Comic-Con International, the annual convention for pop culture enthusiasts in San Diego. Paramount marketers had Depp, dressed in full Scrooge costume, replete with bushy sideburns and a prosthetic nose, appear in an elaborate recreation of a 19th-century London “accounting house.”
As fake snow fell from the roof of the building (in 84-degree heat) and carolers in Dickensian attire sang “O Christmas Tree,” Depp appeared outside and delivered a grumpy but funny version of the original Grinch.
“Who are you and what do you want?” he told the crowd of about 400 people who had gathered on Fifth Street, the convention’s main street.
“We love you, Johnny!” Several people shouted in response. A woman screamed, “Have my baby!”
Depp frowned in disgust. “Nonsense,” he shouted, storming back inside. He played this game for about an hour, returning unannounced to the street and verbally stopping Comic-Con attendees. Some had come dressed as Depp characters such as Edward Scissorhands, the Mad Hatter and Willy Wonka. (“How do you pee?” Depp’s Scrooge said to the Scissorhands guy.)
“Controversies aside, I really like him,” Richard Pole, 37, said of Depp when the marketing stunt began. “I definitely want to see this movie, which is kind of a surprise because ‘A Christmas Carol’ alone isn’t exciting.” Pole, a catering chef, said he was eager to see the collaboration between Depp and the film’s director, Ti West, whose “X” trilogy horror films are known for their shocking visuals.
Mindy Baker, 48, a lobbyist from Chicago, was standing nearby. “It seems like a smart film for Depp,” he said. “It’s a very beloved story and, honestly, I didn’t even recognize him in the Scrooge costume at first,” he said.
Would any lingering disgust over Depp’s divorce from Heard and subsequent trial stop him from buying a ticket? “All of that definitely plays in the back of my brain when I think about it, but I’ll still go see this movie,” Baker said.
A survey by the National Research Group, a film industry consultancy, suggests that Depp remains a powerful draw. In the firm’s most recent global moviegoer survey, released in April, respondents ranked Depp seventh among stars they said would make them “most interested in seeing a new movie in the theater in the future.” Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio took the top three spots. Immediately below Depp were Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves and Scarlett Johansson.
Depp’s Q score, a measure of a star’s likability, has been rising lately. In 2015, before Heard’s allegations, 36 percent of adults surveyed by Q Scores Company viewed him positively. That figure fell to 24 percent in 2023. Earlier this year, it had risen to 27 percent. (The average for a male star in the most recent survey was 18 percent.)
When “Ebenezer” arrives on Nov. 13, it will be the first adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel for multiplexes since 2009, when Jim Carrey played Scrooge in “Disney’s Christmas Carol.” That $200 million motion capture film received poor reviews and grossed only $325 million worldwide, about half of which Disney had to share with theaters.
“Ebenezer,” also starring Rupert Grint, Daisy Ridley and Ian McKellen, will have plenty of competition at the Thanksgiving box office, but it doesn’t need to be a box office hit to be a financial success. The film alone cost approximately $38 million, after accounting for tax credits from Britain, where it was filmed. Depp accepted a substantially reduced starting salary (approximately $5 million) in exchange for a large cut of the proceeds if the film is successful.
