Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer opens in U.S. theaters Nov. 13, and the reviews got there a day early with the long knives out. IndieWire ran David Ehrlich’s verdict under the headline “Johnny Depp Is Absolutely Insufferable in a Dull and Dreary Christmas Carol”, calling his performance “an advent calendar of empty affectations without a soul to anchor them.” Vulture’s Alison Willmore was gentler on everything around him and still opened her review with “Johnny Depp is the worst part of Ebenezer, but he’s also the reason it exists”. The money does not seem to be listening: Box Office Theory is forecasting a $20 million to $27 million opening weekend against a reported $38 million budget, for a 116-minute PG-13 gothic that put Ian McKellen, Rupert Grint and Sam Claflin in the Dickens roles around him. The full verdict on whether Depp sinks the thing belongs to the stream-it-or-skip-it review already running on the site. This guide is for whoever reads that and wants a Scrooge from before the long knives, sorted by mood the same way the site’s running Netflix shortlist works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Ozo1xUgbU
One correction before the list starts. The 1951 Scrooge has circulated online for years as a Netflix title, and it is not one. JustWatch’s Nov. 9, 2026 check puts it on Tubi TV, Plex, the Dove Amazon Channel and Kanopy, or $4.99 to rent on Amazon Video. The confusion tracks: Netflix’s own chart has disagreed with itself about what’s actually on there before, so a listing from a few Decembers back was never gospel. Six picks follow.
For the room that wants the certified classic
Scrooge (1951)
Alastair Sim, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, is still the performance that ends the argument before it starts. The Guardian’s Michael Newton wrote that “Sim’s performance was so definitive, so excellent, that it produced its own reiteration”, and TheWrap ranks it No. 1 of 12 adaptations, calling it flatly “the definitive ‘A Christmas Carol.’”
Best for: the relative who insists they don’t make them like this anymore, and happens to be right.
Where to watch: free with ads on Tubi TV and Plex, on the Dove Amazon Channel, free on Kanopy and Fawesome, or $4.99 to rent on Amazon Video. Checked Nov. 9, 2026.
For the room that heckles sincerity
Scrooged (1988)
Bill Murray plays a television executive who fires a man on Christmas Eve for sport, Richard Donner directs, and the ghosts arrive as a cigar-chewing cab driver and a cheerfully violent Carol Kane. It is the only version on this list allowed to be mean on purpose and warm on purpose in the same scene.
Best for: the crowd that wants its redemption arc delivered with a smirk.
Where to watch: included with Prime Video and Paramount+ (both tiers), free with ads on YouTube Free, or $3.99 to rent. Checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the night somebody in the room is four
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Michael Caine plays Scrooge entirely straight, which is the trick that lets the puppets get away with everything happening around him. The film also carries a real scar: Disney cut Belle’s ballad “When Love Is Gone” from the theatrical release on Jeffrey Katzenberg’s note, which director Brian Henson later recalled as “It’s just a little too adult-emotional for little kids to stay connected”.
Best for: a household with one small kid and one adult who gets more emotional than the kid does.
Where to watch: Disney+ subscription, or rent and buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home. The restored cut with the song back in sits in the Extras section, not the main film, as the Muppets’ own account confirmed:
Checked Nov. 9, 2026.
For the house with time for only one
A Christmas Carol (1984)
George C. Scott plays the miser as a man doing arithmetic on other human beings, and the CBS movie built around him is sturdier than a television budget has any business producing. It first aired Dec. 17, 1984, was shot on location in Shrewsbury, and adds backstory about a mother lost in childbirth and a father who never warmed to his son, which gives the cruelty a cause instead of a costume. Scott’s Emmy nomination for the role lost to Richard Crenna. Its director, Clive Donner, had cut film for a living on the 1951 Scrooge before he ever directed one himself, which makes the two Scrooges everyone argues about distant cousins in the editing room.
Best for: anyone who wants the conversion at the end to actually cost the man something.
Where to watch: free with ads on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex, Xumo Play and Fawesome, included with MGM+ and Philo, or about $3.99 to rent. Checked Nov. 10, 2026.
For the afternoon that wants black and white
A Christmas Carol (1938)
MGM’s version runs a brisk 69 minutes, stars Reginald Owen, and polishes the Cratchit house to the point that TheWrap points out the family looks suspiciously well fed and well housed for people supposedly in financial ruin. It trades Dickens’s grime for Hollywood gloss, and at that length it never drags.
Best for: a double bill with cocoa and zero interest in grit.
Where to watch: HBO Max subscription, free with ads on Xumo Play, or $3.99 to rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home or Spectrum On Demand. Checked Nov. 12, 2026.
For the cautionary tale
A Christmas Carol (2009)
Robert Zemeckis built the whole production around motion capture, with Jim Carrey voicing Scrooge and all three ghosts. ScreenRant’s Vic Holtreman called the near-human likenesses “Creepy” and warned of “scenes that I think will scare the heck out of little kids”. Worth the runtime once, mostly as proof of how fast a cutting-edge technique can curdle.
Best for: the curious viewer who also enjoys being a little unsettled, kept away from anyone under eight.
Where to watch: Disney+ or Prime Video, or $3.99 to rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home. Checked Nov. 10, 2026.
Start with the 1984 version. It streams free with ads, runs shorter than Ebenezer’s 116 minutes, and it is the one where the cruelty comes with a traceable cause instead of just a costume.
The popular answer to this whole list is Sim, and the popular answer is not wrong. TheWrap still ranks the 1951 film No. 1, and the Guardian’s point holds that his performance became the standard every later Scrooge answers to. But canonical and best for tonight are different questions. Sim is the version everyone already trusts. Scott is the one that spends an hour building a specific, explained kind of cold before it lets the thaw land, on a television schedule that had no business affording it. The canon belongs to Sim. The remote belongs to Scott tonight.
