If you buy one movie ticket this week, Friday, November 13 is the day the studios have circled — five significant releases land at once, spanning Christmas prestige, action, family animation, horror and awards bait. Add Wednesday's early arrival and the limited-release gems, and the weekend needs a map. Here it is, with runtimes and ratings where the listings confirm them, and no invented details where they don't.
The Big One: Ebenezer
“Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol” (Paramount, wide, PG-13, 1 hour 56 minutes) is Friday's default blockbuster: Johnny Depp as Scrooge, directed by horror filmmaker Ti West, with Sam Claflin, Rupert Grint, Ellie Bamber, Charlie Murphy, Ian McKellen and Daisy Ridley in support. It is the only family-skewing tentpole of the weekend, which means the biggest screens and the longest lines. We have a full standalone preview of the Depp gamble in our entertainment section.
The Action Pick: How To Rob A Bank
“How to Rob a Bank” (Amazon MGM Studios, wide) is the weekend's adrenaline option, and its pedigree is the pitch: it is directed by David Leitch, the stuntman-turned-director behind Bullet Train, Deadpool 2 and The Fall Guy — a filmmaker whose entire brand is inventive, practical, funny action. A Leitch bank heist is the rare mid-budget theatrical action film of the season, and for audiences who find Dickens in November a hard sell, this is the obvious counter-programming play. Check your local listing for runtime and rating before booking for younger viewers.
The Family Pick: Wildwood
“Wildwood” opens November 12–13 in stop-motion — handcrafted, frame-by-frame animation in a theatrical landscape dominated by computer rendering, which alone makes it the weekend's visual event for families. Its voice cast is remarkable for an animated release: Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay lead, with Carey Mulligan and Mahershala Ali among the ensemble. Stop-motion is a slow art — these films take years — and they tend to be labor-of-love releases that play beautifully on a big screen precisely because every frame was physically built. If you are taking kids to one film this weekend and Ebenezer's ghosts sound too dark, Wildwood is your ticket.
It is worth understanding what you are paying to see. A stop-motion feature is photographed one frame at a time: animators move physical puppets by fractions of an inch, take a picture, and repeat — seconds of finished film per day, per animator, across years of production. In an era when most animated features are rendered in server farms, a handcrafted release is a genuine craft event, and the texture of it — real light on real miniature sets — is the one thing about this weekend that no stream and no render can replicate at home.
The Scare Pick: Victorian Psycho
“Victorian Psycho” (Bleecker Street, wide) is gothic horror with a literary pulse — period setting, psychological dread, and the kind of slow-burn menace that Bleecker Street has made its specialty. Friday the 13th, in November, with a title like that: the marketing writes itself. It faces a genuinely interesting duel with Ebenezer — two Victorian period pieces opening the same day, one a haunting sold as horror and one a haunting sold as Christmas. Horror loyalists get the purer product here; everyone else gets to choose their ghost.
The Prestige Pick: Paper Tiger & Bitter Christmas
In limited release, “Paper Tiger” pairs Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson — one of the most credible actor combinations in modern film — and arrives with the quiet confidence of a title that expects word of mouth to do its marketing. Also in limited release: “Bitter Christmas,” the new film from Pedro Almodóvar, Spain's greatest living director and a permanent event for arthouse audiences; and “Dead of Night,” rounding out the limited slate. Limited means limited screens: if any of these is your pick, book ahead and expect larger cities only this first weekend.
One more arrival gets a head start: “Ghost Soldier” (Sony, PG-13) opens Wednesday, November 11 — a midweek launch timed to the Veterans Day frame, giving it two extra days of the weekend's audience before Friday's pile-up. And nostalgia gets a seat too: “The Angry Birds Movie” returns in a limited 10th-anniversary re-release for families feeling retro.
One Ticket Only: Our Verdict By Mood
In the mood for an event: Ebenezer — the biggest cast, the biggest gamble, the conversation piece of the month. In the mood for pure fun: How to Rob a Bank — Leitch does not miss with this formula. Taking the family: Wildwood, the weekend's craft showcase. Craving dread: Victorian Psycho — it is literally Friday the 13th. Chasing quality over scale: Paper Tiger if it is playing near you; Bitter Christmas for the Almodóvar faithful. Forty-six films open in US theaters this month — but if you only see one this week, match it to your mood from that list and you will not go wrong.
One last piece of strategy for the ambitious: Friday also sets up the year's strangest double feature. Ebenezer and Victorian Psycho are both Victorian ghost stories — one sold as Christmas, one sold as horror — and seeing them back to back is either a terrible idea or a perfect Friday the 13th, depending on the constitution of your household. And if your pick is a limited release, remember the golden rule of November: prestige titles expand only if their first weekend performs. Your opening-weekend ticket is, quite literally, the vote that brings Paper Tiger or Bitter Christmas to more screens.
