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.