Box Office Weekend – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a Killer Queen With Big Opening
This weekend at the box office, the long-awaited Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is having a good time, while The Nutcracker and the Four Realms isn’t getting a fairy tale ending.
Bohemian Rhapsody is sending thunderbolts and lightning into the box office with a $50M opening, nearly matching the $52M production budget. While critics are mixed on the film, particularly due to how the film portrays Freddy Mercury’s story, audiences are rocking out with a $50M opening and an “A” cinemascore – “We Are The Champions”, indeed. The same cannot be said for The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which is off to a bad start with $20M, below Disney’s already-low expectations for the $130M-budgeted film, which is their worst-reviewed release of the year. The last of the three new releases, Nobody’s Fool, did alright but a bit low by Tyler Perry standards with a $14M opening against a $19M budget.
As far as holdovers are concerned, A Star is Born didn’t flinch in the face of fellow musical competition as it saw a shallow drop of just under 21%. Meanwhile, Halloween faced a surprisingly sharp third-weekend drop of nearly 65%, which ultimately doesn’t spell doom for a horror movie with one of the biggest openings in the genre ever. Venom continues to surprise with a 26%+ drop on its fifth weekend, and Smallfoot continues to be a sleeper almost-hit with a drop just above 20%. In other news, First Man continues to struggle as it sheds hundreds of theaters in response to mixed audience reception, which may hurt its chances in the awards circuit.
The Top Twelve box office performances for the three-day weekend can be summarized as follows (bolded titles are new releases):
- Bohemian Rhapsody (20th Century Fox) – $50M Total.
- The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (Disney) – $20M Total.
- Nobody’s Fool (Paramount Pictures) – $14M Total.
- A Star is Born (Warner Bros.) – $11.1M Weekend/$165.634M Total; 20.9% Drop.
- Halloween (Universal Pictures/Blumhouse Productions) – $11.015M Weekend/$150.408M Total; 64.9% Drop.
- Venom (Sony Pictures) – $7.85M Weekend/$198.663M Total; 26.3% Drop.
- Smallfoot (Warner Bros./Warner Animation Group) – $3.805M Weekend/$77.484M Total; 20.1% Drop.
- Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (Sony Pictures) – $3.7M Weekend/$43.832M Total; 49.2% Drop.
- Hunter Killer (Lionsgate Films/Summit Entertainment) – $3.525M Weekend/$12.965M Total; 47% Drop.
- The Hate U Give (20th Century Fox/Fox 2000 Pictures) – $3.4M Weekend/$23.46M Total; 33.4% Drop.
- First Man (Universal Pictures) – $2.265M Weekend/$42.055M Total; 53.4% Drop.
- Night School (Universal Pictures) – $2.015M Weekend/$74.412M Total; 37.7% Drop.
Venom, A Star is Born, Halloween, and Bohemian Rhapsody are now playing in theaters.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
