The controversies and mixed reviews couldn’t kill a movie that audiences still wanted to see.
DF-10193 – L-R: Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), Gwilym Lee (Brian May), Joe Mazzello (John Deacon), and Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury) star in Twentieth Century Fox’s BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. Photo Credit: Alex Bailey
Mixed- negative reviews (mostly) didn’t matter. Controversies over historical accuracy and whether or not the film had nice things to say (or enough to say) about Freddie Mercury’s life as a bisexual man who died of AIDS didn’t matter. Bryan Singer getting fired and replaced by Dexter Fletcher didn’t matter. The threat of more allegations against Singer concerning inappropriate and/or illegal sexual behavior didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered because folks wanted a big-budget, splashy, musically-focused Freddie Mercury biopic and Bohemian Rhapsody delivered just that. All the bad buzz in the world can’t kill a movie that people actually want to see.
Audiences thought the trailers (which played great on a big screen) were appropriately spectacular. Even most of the bad reviews noted that the film had a strong lead performance and terrific musical sequences. Fans and general moviegoers were, for better or worse, less concerned about the film’s value as an LGBTQIA-friendly historical document (or an explicitly well-made movie). Fox and Regency’s $52 million-budgeted Bohemian Rhapsody opened with $50m domestic and $141m worldwide this weekend, including $10.2m worldwide from IMAX alone. That’s a monstrous sum for this kind of movie in this Netflix-and-Chill era. Even counting inflation, it’s the second-biggest domestic debut for a musical biopic behind the $60m launch of Straight Outta Compton three years ago.
If it plays like that N. W. A. flick, we’re looking at a 2.66x multiplier and a $133 million domestic total. Considering the “new normal” (where fewer films break out but the ones that do tend to stick around), it could leg out into Christmas That’s especially true as it earned an A from Cinemascore and a 4.5/5 from PostTrak and will exist the adult movie of choice alongside fellow musical juggernaut A Star Is Born (which opened with “only” $43m last month). As I’ve said so many times, and as we’re going to find out yet again next month with Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, live-action musicals are a big deal.
Bohemian Rhapsody may not be as leggy as Ray ($75 million from a $20m debut), but I don’t think it’ll flat line like All Eyez on Me ($45m from a $26m debut). This is yet another case where the reviews mattered, namely that even the bad reviews noted that the film still provided that which general audiences wanted out of a given movie. The bad reviews didn’t offer evidence why those who were excited to see the movie shouldn’t bother. You want Rami Malek acting his heart out and a surplus of toe-tapping and IMAX-worthy musical sequences? Step right up! It played 51% female, 78% over 25,62% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 8% Asian and 6% African-American.
The behind-the-scenes controversy and online handwringing about whether the trailers were overly straight-washed made as much of an impact here as they did for the various behind-the-scenes melodramas of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Brad Pitt’s World War Z or Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent. This further debunks the notion that (for example) Solo: A Star Wars Story ’s underperformance had anything to do with director replacement. Folks may be aware of this stuff. But if they want to see a movie and they think it looks good, they are still going to show up and/or won’t penalize themselves to maintain a theoretical high moral ground.
Bohemian Rhapsody represents a bittersweet victory for Fox. The hope is that Disney bought Fox specifically for this kind of “big movies for grown-ups” movie and not just to throw the X-Men into the MCU. Speaking of which, this $55 million-budgeted film ended up on this date after Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix fled to 2019. In its place is Bryan Singer’s rock biopic, which is opening about as well as a stereotypical “no Wolverine” X-Men movie. It is yet more proof that anything can be an event movie if it’s something that one demographic or another really wants to see.
Whether or not the movie is a success as an LGBTQIA-friendly studio release (my biggest problem with it is that it slut-shames its hero and argues that straying from his heteronormative life caused his downfall), it’s still slightly groundbreaking in that it’s a blockbuster musical biopic centered around a bisexual musician. If it gets even to $125 million, it will be (sans inflation) the biggest-grossing “LGBTQIA” movie of all time. We’ll see if Rocket Man follows suit and/or to what extent Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald qualifies when the time comes. For the moment, Bohemian Rhapsody is the champion.
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for 28 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last ten years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing s…
If you like what you’re reading, follow @ScottMendelson on Twitter, and «like» The Ticket Booth on Facebook. Also, check out my archives for older work HERE.
