Жүжигчин Жонни Деппийн тоглосон “Ebenezer” кино дэлхий даяар 42 сая ам.долларын орлогоор нээлтээ хийж, зах зээлд өөрийн байр сууриа тодорхойллоо.
“Ebenezer” кино дотоодын зах зээлд 19 сая ам.долларын орлого олсон нь Жонни Деппийн хувьд томоохон эргэн ирэлт гэхээсээ илүүтэй, түүнийг зөв төсөвтэй кинонд тоглуулах нь ашигтай болохыг харуулсан үзүүлэлт боллоо. Тус бүтээл 38 сая ам.долларын төсөвтэй тул баярын өдрүүдэд үзэгчдийн тоо тогтвортой байвал ашигтай ажиллах төлөвтэй байна. Жүжигчин тус дүрийг бүтээхийн тулд цалингаа бууруулж, 5 сая ам.доллар авсан нь студийн хувьд эрсдэл багатай алхам болжээ.
Жонни Депп өмнө нь “Pirates of the Caribbean”, Тим Бёртоны найруулсан “Alice in Wonderland” зэрэг төслүүдээр 1 тэрбум ам.доллараас давсан орлого олж байсан ч сүүлийн жилүүдэд хувийн амьдралтай нь холбоотой дуулиан шуугиан болон киноны зардал өндөр байсан нь түүний зах зээлийн үнэлгээнд нөлөөлсөн юм. Ялангуяа “The Lone Ranger”, “Transcendence” зэрэг өндөр төсөвтэй бүтэлгүйтсэн кинонууд нь түүнийг студиудын хувьд эрсдэлтэй сонголт болгож байв.
Одоогоор 63 настай жүжигчин “Day Drinker” хэмээх триллер төрлийн кинонд тоглохоор төлөвлөж байгаа бөгөөд Lionsgate студи уг бүтээлийг гуравдугаар сард гаргахаар товложээ. Энэхүү кино нь түүнийг дахин томоохон хэмжээний жүжигчин гэдгийг нотлох эсвэл зөвхөн тодорхой хүрээний үзэгчдэд зориулагдсан уран бүтээлч хэвээр үлдэх эсэхийг харуулах болно.
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If Johnny Depp was hoping that “Ebenezer” would mark a glorious return to mainstream movies, he may need to hold out for another vehicle. The Christmas fable, released long before Thanksgiving let alone the holidays, topped the box office with $19 million domestically and $42 million globally, a solid, but unremarkable debut. It shows that enough moviegoers are able to look past the scandals that led Hollywood to remove Depp from their call sheets for the better part of a decade, but also exposed the limitations of his popular appeal.
The fact is that Depp was always something of a dicey commercial proposition. Put him in a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie and you were guaranteed to earn $1 billion even if the script sucked and the plot seemed designed at the end of a wine bottle. Team him with Tim Burton, as he was quite successfully with “Sweeney Todd” ($153 million gross, $50 million budget), “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” ($475.8 million gross, $150 million budget), and “Alice in Wonderland” ($1 billion gross, $200 million budget), and you were likely to have a big hit. Well, unless they were looking to reboot “Dark Shadows.”
But the rest of Depp’s track record was spotty. “Public Enemies” ($214.1 million gross, $100 million budget) and “Black Mass” ($100 million gross, $53 million budget) did well considering they were R-rated adult dramas, but struggled to break even because they cost too much to make and Depp commanded his full $20 million salary. Then there were the costly bombs, a litany of duds that includes “Mortdecai” ($47.3 million gross, $60 million budget), “The Lone Ranger” ($260.5 million gross, $250 million budget), “Transcendence” ($103 million gross, $150 million budget), and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” ($300 million gross, $170 million budget), the latter a return to Wonderland sans Burton. Many of these seemed like paycheck gigs rather than an attempt to burnish Depp’s star power. There was private island to pay for and a pirate-themed wine cave to keep stocked on Depp’s sprawling French estate. But the promise of another Jack Sparrow adventure meant that Hollywood was able to look the other way, confident that there was more plunder to be found by allowing the actor to follow his idiosyncratic muse.
Depp could have kept going like this, but his messy personal life interceded. Depp’s reputation took a hit he was embroiled in a costly, two-continent legal battle against ex-wife Amber Heard, in which he was accused of domestic abuse. He denied the allegations, and later lost a U.K. libel suit against The Sun, when the court found an article calling Depp a “wife beater” was “substantially true.” Depp would go on to defamation trial against Heard in the U.S., after she wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, calling herself a domestic abuse survivor. By that time, he’d been fired from the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise (it would be cancelled after a non-Depp led installment bombed), and was consigned to appearing in straight-to-streaming schlock or barely seen indies. But it wasn’t just the reputational damage that made major studios skittish about Depp. They had grown tired of his antics. There were reports he would show up late and unprepared, even as his salary demands and requests for perks escalated. That’s fine when your movies are making lots of money, it’s less charming when they are losing it.
So a lot is riding on “Ebenezer.” Depp looked a little uneasy on red carpets promoting the movie and Paramount, which is backing the film, wisely kept him from doing profiles with harder-hitting journalists who might ask him a probing question. He also cut his salary, reportedly receiving a $5 million paycheck to play one of his dream roles — Ebenezer Scrooge, and with it a chance to wear fright makeup and talk in a weird voice. But unlike most of Depp’s recent films, “Ebenezer” is poised to be a modest financial success. The $38 million budget is low enough that if the film continues to draw crowds through the holidays and performs well overseas, where it earned $23 million, it will turn a profit. But that points to a new reality — Depp is a sound bet, for the right price. Maybe that was a lesson that studios should have taken before. Depp’s taste is rococo, but Hollywood kept treating every one of his outings like potential blockbusters when a little more caution was warranted.
Next up for Depp is “Day Drinker,” an action thriller that seems to play into the star’s libertine image. Lionsgate will release the film in March. Will it be the vehicle that puts the 63-year-old Depp back on top or will it, like “Ebenezer,” confirm that there’s still a smaller, but committed audience for his antics? Budget accordingly.
