Johnny Depp's New Fantasy Movie Draws Strong Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

45 minutes ago 21

Published Nov 15, 2026, 12:01 PM EST

Ryan Northrup is a Senior Staff Writer on ScreenRant's Movie & TV News team, where he has authored nearly 5,000 articles, including features and reviews. A graduate of McMaster University, Ryan began his career in public relations before attending Vancouver Film School. There, he built lasting industry connections and optioned a feature film screenplay.

Ebenezer is a win with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed by Ti West, the new adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol stars Johnny Depp as Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy old businessman who gets a shot at redemption after supernatural ocurrences. Ebenezer marks Depp's high-profile return to Hollywood after a number of years away following his legal troubles with ex-wife Amber Heard.

Following the film's theatrical release on November 13, Ebenezer has now debuted with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, earning a strong 90% Popcornmeter score from 500+ verified ratings. This audience score is in stark contrast to the movie's lackluster critics' score of 54%, which was generated from 123 reviews. Though the critics' score is unlikely to change too significantly in the days ahead, the movie has only been available to audiences for two days, meaning the Popcornmeter could still fluctuate as more get a chance to see it.

The audience reviews section on Rotten Tomatoes is filled with praise, much of which is aimed specifically at Depp. One reviewer calls the film "one of the best versions of Scrooge/Ebenezer I have seen," with Depp's performance described as "dark comedy at its best." Another viewer calls Depp's performance "awesome" and awards the movie "a perfect 10."

"Welcome back Johnny Depp," writes another viewer, who praise the film for being a "darker and grittier" take on Dickens' source material. Not all the audience reviews are high praise, however, with another viewer awarding the film two out of five stars. This reviewer takes issue with the film's overly familiar take on A Christmas Carol and calls Depp "a little miscast."

Despite the odd outlier, the general audience response is clearly overwhelmingly positive, and Depp seems to be a major reason for this. Also starring Rupert Grint, Ian McKellen, Andrea Riseborough, Daisy Ridley, Sam Claflin, and Tramell Tillman, Ebenezer has also gotten off to a modest start at the box office. Made on a budget of $38 million, the film opened to $19 million in North America, with a worldwide total of $42 million.

This respectable box office start comes as critics' reviews largely mixed. A key point of criticism is just how traditional and standard West's film feels as an adaptation, with the work largely adhering to Dickens' original tale with few creative risks, despite the updated Ebenezer ending.

ScreenRant's own Ebenezer review by Liz Declan is a lackluster five out of 10 stars. For Declan, the movie "falls flat" because it doesn't have anything interesting to say, and it also doesn't effectively use its strong supporting cast. Declan writes:

Yet, for as much as the stellar supporting cast is a plus, it also represents one of the weakest points of Ebenezer. The film vastly underutilizes its secondary characters. Sure, Ebenezer is an adaptation of A Christmas Carol and is largely loyal to that storyline, and the title of the film alone suggests the movie is primarily focused on Scrooge. However, with this being (in theory) a deviation from the typical telling of Dickens' story, it would have made sense to toy around with the original plot at least a little.

It remains to be seen how Ebenezer fares in the days and weeks ahead, but the baggage associated with Depp doesn't seem to be an issue for a large portion of movie-goers. Though reducing public opinion on an actor or movie down to one Rotten Tomatoes score doesn't paint a particularly full picture, this film evidently could be the start of a greater comeback for Depp.