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Jason Barney: Can we please relax a bit on the discussion of Depp’s career being in the toilet? Rum Diaries was a smaller project, anyway. Lone Ranger was a huge miss. Dark Shadows wasn’t a great film, but did bring in $245 million globally against a $150 million budget. Those are his last three projects. That puts him only three years removed from Pirates 4, which earned over a billion dollars worldwide. He is four years removed from Alice in Wonderland’s billion dollars worldwide. Sure, the last three years have not seen the success of some of his earlier movies but it is not like the guy is looking for work. Only 18 films have grossed over a billion dollars, and Depp was in three of them. One of the other Pirate films grossed over $900 million globally. Sure, his current films aren’t receiving the attention they did five years ago, but he is still fine.

Noting the ups and downs of a performer’s career is what we do, but sometimes we overdo it. Depp won’t be hurt much by this. He has Through the Looking Glass lined up for next year and another Pirates of the Caribbean in the hopper for 2016. Those should be big breadwinners for him.

Brett Ballard-Beach: To return to his current project for just a moment: I see Transcendence as the 2014 2.0 version of 1997's Nick of Time, where Depp was miscast in an interesting but not entirely successful project, as he attempted to play an ordinary person devoid of any quirks. Transcendence would be kind of forgotten like that except for its budget and Johnny Depp being who he is nowadays. I am only half-kidding when I say that the answer to this question - in some way - involves these two words: Amber and Heard. Either she is making his project choices for him by throwing darts at the wall while blindfolded or he is completely head over heels besotted in love and he has taken leave of his Johnny Depp-ness. I wish them a lifetime of happiness, but their pending nuptials have me scratching my head more than any other celebrity engagement of recent vintage that comes to mind. I did also want to add that I finally caught up with The Lone Ranger and enjoyed it more than 95% of the sum total running time of the entire Pirates franchise. He gave an incredible performance that found the perfect outlet for his eccentricities. Plus a $200 million dollar Disney film indicting Manifest Destiny, the genocide of a race, and the corruptness of supposedly moral men on all levels... is mind-blowing.

Kim Hollis: Once upon a time, Johnny Depp just did whatever projects he felt like doing. Sometimes they were good (Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Chocolat) and other times they were just... inscrutable (The Ninth Gate, The Astronaut's Wife). But before Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp was no guaranteed earner. His projects were all over the place. Then came Pirates, and Depp's perceived celebrity ascended. He didn't really stop being the Johnny Depp he'd always been at that point. In fact, his performance as Captain Jack went blatantly against what Disney wanted. Now, he's kind of back to being the Johnny Depp of old. He's going to keep on choosing bizarre, sometimes inexplicable roles and some will hit and some won't. I would posit that Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland were the anomalies for him.

David Mumpower: I fully believe that the people most bothered by the failure of Transcendence other than Warner Bros. are those employed at Disney, distributors for Depp's next major release as well as the umpteenth Pirates of the Caribbean film in a couple of years. Disney is now reconsidering the decision to go all-in on such an eclectic actor. Depp shunned the spotlight for a large portion of his career by intentionally selecting projects that were the opposite of commercial. Even after he became a superstar as Jack Sparrow, the next major role he selected was as a man who killed his wife in Secret Window. I generally eschew critic's screenings, but I went to that one. I will never forget the shocked silence in the theater as that shovel strike registered. That is the type of story Depp has always preferred to tell, the unexpected one wherein the audience's predisposition is used against them. It's also why he and Tim Burton have been a perfect tandem over the years. Burton can cast a lead with legitimate Hollywood lead actor good looks while still capitalizing on the inscrutable nature of Depp. It's been a win/win combination in a lot of instances yet it is also why Depp's career has stagnated lately. Audiences do hold grudges. Dark Shadows plus The Lone Ranger plus Transcendence is a messy amount of negative reinforcement Depp must overcome if he is to return to glory. Then again, even if he doesn't, Depp has an estimated net worth in excess of a quarter billion dollars so what does he care if the money train has pulled into the station?

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