Bohemian Rhapsody is the box office champion with a $50 million opening weekend

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

published 5 November 2018

Fox's Queen biopic won the domestic box office this weekend, while Disney's latest live-action effort wasn't so lucky.

Bohemian Rhapsody, which stars Rami Malek as Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, had a $50 million U.S. debut, per Box Office Mojo. This was well above expectations; the film last week was projected to bring in closer to $35 million, Variety reported. The critics have been tough on the film, but audiences clearly disagree: While Bohemian Rhapsody earned a 60 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, it has already made $141 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million, and moviegoers across the country gave it an average rating of A, per CinemaScore.

Meanwhile, Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms failed to conjure much Christmas spirit with a dismal $20 million opening. This is particularly dire considering the live-action retelling of the classic story reportedly had a budget of about $130 million. Analysts blame a variety of factors including the release date, which placed a Christmas movie nearly two full months before the actual holiday, and just two days after Halloween. This is Disney's third box office stumble of the year after A Wrinkle in Time and Solo: A Star Wars Story. But considering this was also the year that Disney made over $3 billion from Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War alone, the studio can probably handle these occasional losses.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

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