The long-gestating production of the Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was interrupted when director Bryan Singer (who retains screen credit) became a victim of the “MeToo” movement and was fired. Despite criticism that the “PG-13” rated Bohemian Rhapsody failed to explore the complexities of bisexual lead singer Freddie Mercury’s troubled life, and a lukewarm reception overall from the critics, who gave the film a barely positive 60% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, this Queen biopic earned an “A” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.
Even though the reviews of Bohemian Rhapsody were often negative, most of the critics praised Rami Malek’s intense performance as the band’s doomed lead singer as well as the film’s well-staged, IMAX-ready, musical numbers, which may have been enough to attract an audience that was already extremely familiar with Queen’s music. The opening weekend crowd was almost evenly split between the genders (51% female) and older with 53% over 35. Caucasians made up 62% of the audience, with Hispanics accounting for 20%, Asians 8%, and African-Americans 6%.
Bohemian Rhapsody’s $50 million bow is even better than that of Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born, and even if the Queen biopic doesn’t quite develop the legs of Cooper’s remake, with $72 million earned overseas already, the film is already a win for Fox, which bumped the X-Men spin-off Dark Phoenix off this date in favor of Singer’s musical (see “X-Men: Dark Phoenix & New Mutants Bumped By Queen Biopic”). With the success of A Star Is Born and now Bohemian Rhapsody, don’t be surprised if Disney’s Mary Poppins makes it three in a row for the musical genre over the coming Christmas holidays.
The news is not nearly so good for Disney’s live-action holiday-themed fantasy The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which opened with just $20 million. This $125 million production didn’t wow the critics (it has a poor 34% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but it did receive an OK “B+” CinemaScore, so it could staunch the bleeding if it can develop “legs” over the coming holiday season. The Nutcracker earned $38.5 million overseas, so there is also some hope on that front, but there is no doubt that the film’s North American opening was a disappointment.
Third place went to another new film, Tyler Perry’s Nobody’s Fool, an R-rated romantic comedy starring Tiffany Haddish, which earned an estimated $14 million. Nobody’s Fool received an “A-“ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences that skewed female (61%) and older with 25% of the crowd over 45.
Despite direct competition from Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born slipped just 21% as it earned $11.1 million to push its domestic total over $165 million. It should be interesting to track the competition between the two musical hits over the next few weeks. A Star Is Born has also earned $128.3 million overseas for a worldwide cumulative that is approaching $300 million.
Last week’s winner Halloween dropped 65% as it earned an estimated $11 million to drive its domestic total to $150 million. This seasonal film will continue to fade quickly, but the $10 million production is already hugely successful having earned $229 million worldwide at this point.
Ruben Fleischer’s Venom continues to demonstrate strong legs, dropping just 26.3% as it earned $7.9 million to bring its domestic total to $198.7 million. This Spidey-Verse spin-off will pass $200 million by next week, and it has already earned $541 million worldwide, with a debut in China still to come next weekend.
Amazon’s strange (and strained) relationship to theatrical film exhibition continued to play out as the streaming giant expanded its Beautiful Boy into 540 theaters, earning an estimated $1.4 million, and also expanded (from 2 venues to 311) the studio’s stylish remake of the horror film Suspira, which earned almost a million. While it’s obvious that Amazon’s theatrical plays are mostly about attracting Oscar’s attention, it is hard to figure out why the studio didn’t try to get more traction for Suspira in the horror film “sweet spot” that is the month of October.
Be sure to check back here next week, since things will really heat up with Universal’s release of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch in over 4,000 theaters, Sony’s unveiling of the Steig Larsson spin-off The Girl in the Spider’s Web in over 3,000 locations, and Paramount’s well-reviewed military fantasy Overlord, about G.I.s battling Nazi-created monsters debuting in over 2,500 venues.
