'Bohemian Rhapsody' opened with a $50 million weekend. Insert Queen pun here.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a box office champion, my friends. (Sorrynotsorry for that pun.)
The Rami Malek-led journey into the life and times of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury scored an estimated $50 million in its opening weekend. That's even more than the $45 million it was expected to pull in as of Friday.
It's the best box office start for a music biopic since 2015's N.W.A. story, Straight Outta Compton. That earlier movie, which opened with $60.2 million, had the best start ever for any movie in the genre. Bohemian Rhapsody now falls in at #2.
Notably, this could be one of the last 21st Century Fox movies released before Disney closes its big deal to acquire a number of key Fox holdings in film and television. The deal is expected to be finalized sometime in 2019.
Bohemian Rhapsody hasn't exactly won over critics. A review from Mashable's own Queen superfan, Christ Taylor, included this not-exactly-glowing endorsement: "[I]t is best to treat Bohemian Rhapsody as an extended music video. Don't expect much more and you'll have a fine time."
(Chris still adored the movie and had a lot of very kind, positive things to say about it in his review.)
More broadly, the move has just a 60 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and, importantly, an audience score of 95 percent). Crowds are loving it, which isn't exactly a surprise.
Queen is seriously huge, a world-renowned name on the level of David Bowie. This combination of beloved star (Malek), eye-catching title (does anyone not love the song?), and fascinating subject (Queen rules!) feels like a ready-made crowd-pleaser.
All box office data provided by comScore and BoxOfficeMojo.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
