‘Ebenezer’ with Johnny Depp scores big as holidays near

Johnny Depp's film Ebenezer took the top spot at the North American box office, earning an impressive US$19 million in its debut weekend. The movie, a modern take on Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol, sees Depp playing Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy miser who learns the true meaning of Christmas through a series of ghostly visits. This is the latest in a long line of live-action and animated adaptations of the beloved book.

While critics have given the film mixed reviews, audiences have responded with high praise, giving the movie an excellent score. Paramount Pictures distributed the film, which is likely to capitalize on the holiday season's big releases. Coming in second place was The Cat in the Hat, a Dr. Seuss animated adaptation distributed by Warner Bros., which grossed US$11.4 million in its second weekend.

Japan's Godzilla Minus Zero rounded out the top three, earning US$8.3 million in its opening weekend. The film, set in a post-war Japan and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, sees Godzilla return to battle the monster King Ghidorah. It was produced by Toho and distributed in North America by GKIDS.

Rounding out the top five was Ramayana, a biopic about Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, earning US$5.5 million in its opening weekend. The film marked one of just five Indian releases in the US over the last three decades. The final spot in the top 10 was taken by A24's biopic You Can See Everything, which follows the life of Elizabeth Holmes, a convicted fraudster, and her 11-month prison sentence.

The film earned US$5.5 million in its debut weekend, bringing its five-week total to an estimated US$89.8 million.