Ti West’s Ebenezer, with Johnny Depp as Scrooge, opened at No. 1 in North America with an estimated $19m from 3,535 theatres over 13–15 November, according to studio figures reported by Variety. It also led Italy, where it opened a day earlier and sold 148,207 tickets from Thursday to Saturday, Cinetel figures show. In South Korea the anime holdover Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island stayed on top with 116,172 admissions, the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS weekend table shows.
The Korean race was closer than the ranking suggests. The new climbing thriller Fall 2: Deadpoint finished 8,645 admissions behind Chiikawa from far fewer showings, and sold more tickets per screening. None of the three markets has a final count yet, and their windows do not line up.
Key facts
- North America: Ebenezer, an estimated $19m from 3,535 theatres, Friday to Sunday (studio estimate).
- Italy: Ebenezer (Scrooge e gli spiriti del Natale), 148,207 admissions and €1.18m ($1.31m), Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 November. Sunday is not yet published.
- South Korea: Chiikawa, 116,172 admissions and KRW1.17bn ($874,000), Friday to Sunday; provisional actuals.
- FilmBunch calculation: Fall 2 averaged 17.9 admissions per screening against 15.9 for Chiikawa, from the two KOBIS weekend rows.
- FilmBunch calculation: Ebenezer averaged €7.98 ($8.81) a ticket in Italy, and Saturday supplied 57% of its three-day gross.
The weekend at a glance
| Market | No. 1 | Figure | Window | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US and Canada | Ebenezer | $19m, 3,535 theatres | Fri–Sun, 13–15 November | Studio estimate | Studios, via Variety |
| Italy | Ebenezer | 148,207 admissions; €1,182,059 ($1.31m) | Thu–Sat, 12–14 November | Cinetel tables; Sunday not in | Cinetel |
| South Korea | Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island | 116,172 admissions; KRW1,168,732,230 ($874,000) | Fri–Sun, 13–15 November | Provisional actuals | KOBIS |
Each market uses its own measure, so the rows should not be ranked against one another.
North America: a clear win for a Christmas opener
Ebenezer, Paramount’s PG-13 version of A Christmas Carol, cost $38m to produce and drew an A- CinemaScore, Variety reported. It is Depp’s first major film role since Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018. Outside North America it added an estimated $23m from 63 markets, for a $42m global start; like the domestic number, that is a studio estimate.
The opening was well clear of the holdovers. The Cat in the Hat was second with about $11m from 4,003 theatres in its second weekend, down 45%, for $36.7m in North America. Last weekend’s leader, Godzilla Minus Zero, fell 75% to third with $8.31m from 3,264 locations and has taken $48.1m. Of the new wide releases, Sony’s Ghost Soldier was sixth with $5.2m and Amazon MGM’s How to Rob a Bank, directed by David Leitch, seventh with $5m from 2,810 theatres.
On the rounded estimates, Ebenezer averaged about $5,400 a theatre, against about $2,700 for The Cat in the Hat, $2,500 for Godzilla Minus Zero and $1,800 for How to Rob a Bank. Variety put the North American year to date 20% ahead of the same point in 2025.
Italy: a Thursday opening ahead of two local titles
Released by Eagle Pictures as Scrooge e gli spiriti del Natale, Ebenezer took €1,182,059 ($1.31m) over its first three days, an average of €7.98 a ticket. Saturday alone brought €676,193 and 83,610 admissions: 57% of the gross and 56% of the tickets.
Cinetel ranks by takings. The Italian release Se domani non torno was second in its second week with €854,883 ($945,000) from 117,171 admissions, taking it to €3.54m ($3.92m). Another new Italian title, Un weekend artificiale, was third with €585,689 ($647,000), narrowly ahead of Il rumore delle cose nuove, which sold more tickets (75,878 against 72,720) but grossed less. Godzilla Minus Zero, which also opened on Thursday through Plaion Pictures, was fifth with 53,172 admissions and €462,400 ($511,000). Our 8 November weekend report and Japanese six-day account follow the film in other markets.
South Korea: a newcomer outsells the leader per showing
Chiikawa (극장판 치이카와: 인어 섬의 비밀), on release since 30 September, slipped 22% from the previous weekend’s 149,050 admissions but held first with 116,172 and KRW1.17bn ($874,000). Its total stands at 2,949,092 admissions.
Fall 2: Deadpoint (폴2: 데드포인트), the Spierig brothers’ sequel to the 2022 survival thriller, opened on Wednesday 11 November and took 107,527 admissions and KRW1.10bn ($821,000) over the weekend. It did so from 6,014 showings, against 7,297 for Chiikawa: 17.9 admissions per screening to 15.9. These are tickets per screening, not occupancy, because KOBIS does not publish seat counts. Fall 2 has 140,032 admissions in all, which leaves 32,505 for its first two days and any previews. On Sunday alone, Chiikawa led 46,028 to 39,932.
The local mystery Final Interview (최종면접) was third with 69,495 admissions, or 12.6 a showing, and has 283,279 in total. Ebenezer, released in Korea by Lotte Entertainment as 스크루지: 크리스마스 캐럴 on 11 November, missed the weekend top 10; it was 10th on Sunday with 4,594 admissions and has 19,783 since opening.
Conversions use the European Central Bank’s 13 November rates (€1 = KRW1,477.80 = $1.1052) on unrounded figures.
Still to come
North American actuals arrive on Monday, along with Italy’s Sunday figures and KOBIS’s overnight revisions, which can move the Korean numbers. Japan’s Kogyo Tsushin and the BFI had not posted this weekend when this report was compiled, and China is not covered in this edition.
Our reading
Ebenezer topped two of the three markets here, but the sharper signal came from Korea. Fall 2 finished within 8,645 tickets of a hit in its seventh weekend while playing about 1,300 fewer showings. Next weekend’s KOBIS table will show whether cinemas hand it more screenings on the strength of that rate of sale.
See also the Box Office section and our Korea coverage.
Sources
- Variety, Sunday studio estimates, 15 November
- KOBIS, 13–15 November weekend table (provisional actuals)
- KOBIS, Sunday 15 November daily table
- Cinetel, boxoffice tables for 12–14 November
- European Central Bank, euro reference rates, 13 November
- Kogyo Tsushin, displayed weekend dated 6–8 November
- BFI, latest displayed weekend report
- KOBIS, 6–8 November weekend table (previous weekend, via FilmBunch 8 November report)
- Eagle Pictures, Italian release page for Scrooge e gli spiriti del Natale (Ebenezer)