‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Is The Champion Of The Box Office With $50 Million Opening
Queen is one of those bands that everyone sings along with when one of their trademark tunes comes on the radio. So it should come as no surprise that a rock biopic bearing the title of one of their most famous songs topped the box office last weekend.
Bohemian Rhapsody, the story of the unique rock band Queen and their energetic frontman Freddie Mercury, landed at the top of the box office this weekend. While projections had the movie making somewhere in the mid-$30 million range, the rock biopic exceeded expectations impressively with $50 million. But how did the rest of the box office openers fare?Box Office Mojohas the weekend box office numbers, which show that audiences weren’t put off by the lukewarm reception from critics. That’s likely because of the draw of Queen and the power of their discography bringing them into theaters. After all, even the bad reviews praisedRami Malek’s performance in the lead as Freddie Mercury. In fact,Bohemian Rhapsodyearned an “A” CinemaScore, which means audiences were pretty satisfied with the film, not to mention the fact that it played to both men and women and multi-generational crowds.
It seems like udiences got exactly what they wanted from a Queen biopic, but critics weren’t impressed because of all the biopic cliches and tropes present in the film. After seeingBohemian Rhapsody, I knew it was going to be huge with Queen fans, even though it’s not necessarily the story this band deserves. It hits all of the expected beats that this kind of music biopic has in the past, but afterWalk Hardsent up those tropes magnificently, critics expect more from a movie like this. Meanwhile, most general audiences just wanted to tap their feet along to Queen’s long list of hits and relive their glory days.
Meanwhile,The Nutcracker and the Four Realmslanded on the lower side of expectations with $20 million, earning them a second place finish. With the movie racking up a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes and only a satisfactory B+ Cinema Score from audiences, it’s no surprise that the movie isn’t pulling in nearly as much interest as the usual Disney release.
Finally, Paramount Pictures debuted their R-rated comedyNobody’s Foolwith a respectable $14 million. That’s not bad for an R-rated comedy directed by Tyler Perry and starring Tiffany Haddish, especially with audiences giving it an A- CinemaScore.
With new releases taking the top three spots at the box office,A Star Is Bornimpressively stayed high on the charts in the #4 spot with another $11.1 million, making the US total $165 million. The movie certainly has long legs, and if it gets as much awards attention as expected, it’s bound to stick around in the coming weeks. It might even end up getting a second wide release as we get closer to the Oscars.
The top five was rounded out byHalloween, which earned another $11 million. The drop from the second weekend was a little steeper than expected, but that’s not surprising since it’s officially November and everyone is moving on to Thanksgiving and Christmas after the Halloween season. Still, the movie has pulled in over $150 million in the US, and that’s huge for a horror sequel
Interestingly enough,Venomis staying strong on the box office charts in the #6 spot. After licking up another $7.85 million this past weekend, the domestic total stands at $198.6 million, which means it will surpass the $200 million milestone sometime later this week. That’s surprising for a movie that was lambasted endlessly by critics, but Venom’s tongue knows no limits.
The box office gets a few more contenders this coming weekend withThe Grincharriving well ahead of Christmas, and bothOverlordandThe Girl in the Spider’s Webbringing two different kinds of thrills and action to the big screen. How will they fare against the holdovers? We’ll find out next weekend.
