In the spirit of its larger-than-life subject Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody rocketed its way to the top of the charts this weekend, bringing in an estimated $50 million in its opening frame. Elsewhere, Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms debuted soft, while Nobody’s Fool gave another box office win to director/producer Tyler Perry and star Tiffany Haddish.
Despite a troubled production history and so-so reviews (it currently stands at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes), Bohemian Rhapsody blasted past expectations this weekend on the strength of rock band Queen’s enduring popularity and buzz around Rami Malek’s acclaimed performance as frontman Mercury. It didn’t hurt that the studio’s marketing department pulled out all the stops for the film (it scored highly on our Trailer Impact surveys over the last few weeks, particularly in the Recall metric) and that Malek has been a highly visible presence on late-night talk shows and other promotional venues in the lead-up to release, which has given the title supreme visibility. The film also seems to have drummed up much organic interest thanks to the lasting popularity of both Mercury and the group itself, who minted such culture-defining hits as the title track and “We Will Rock You,” which has been a staple anthem at sporting events for decades. IMAX sales also helped pad the opening weekend numbers, with Rhapsody bringing in $6.2 million from 401 screens in the premium format.
Compared with similar titles as of late, Bohemian Rhapsody‘s debut came in 14% higher than the Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper blockbuster A Star Is Born ($42.9 million opening) and 30% above Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which opened to $34.9 million back in July. Though less-than-stellar critical notices might ordinarily point to a frontloaded performance for a fall biopic, the Fox release also received an encouraging “A” Cinemascore from opening day audiences and boasts a Flixster audience score of 94%, suggesting it may well enjoy the kind of word-of-mouth that will help it play strongly over the coming weeks, particularly with what is sure to be a full-court-press Oscar campaign for Malek.
Coming in second place was Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which debuted with a somewhat disappointing $20 million in its opening frame. The big-budget production was heavily marketed to family audiences looking for a holiday-centric diversion, but despite a recognizable supporting cast and a fantasy premise engineered for this time of year, poor reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes score is just 35%) and a non-franchise title helped dash its hopes of opening higher this weekend.
It’s worth noting that Nutcracker is the second PG-rated fantasy to underperform for the Mouse House this year. Back in March, A Wrinkle in Time debuted to a relatively decent $33.1 million but managed to just barely cross $100 million by the end of its run. With a much slower start than that title – not to mention a lower first-weekend total than the much more modestly-budgeted Christopher Robin ($24.5 million opening) – Nutcracker will need to boast incredibly strong legs in the weeks ahead, though its path to doing so will be hampered considerably by next weekend’s release of Dr. Suess’ The Grinch, which with its iconic title character and holiday-geared premise will no gobble up a large share of the family audience.
In third place was the weekend’s other new wide release Nobody’s Fool, which managed an estimated $14 million opening for director/producer Tyler Perry and star Tiffany Haddish. That’s a slower start than for Perry’s Acrimony from earlier this year ($17.1 million), but still a healthy total for a film with a reported budget of just $19 million. For Haddish, the debut came in lower than the $27.2 million opening of September’s Night School, though that film benefitted from the added starpower of Kevin Hart, so it’s not really a fair comparison. While Fool‘s Rotten Tomatoes score of 25% is rather dismal, the box office performances of Perry’s films have never been reliant on critics. Indeed, it’s worth noting that while none of the films he’s directed have ever managed a “Fresh” rating on the review aggregator, almost all of them have been hits, and that trend shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. The Cinemascore for the film is “A-.”
A Star Is Born boasted another strong hold in its fifth weekend with an estimated $11.1 million, giving the Warner Bros. musical drama a powerful $165.6 million in fourth place. That’s a drop of just 21% from last weekend, a surprisingly strong hold given the presence of Bohemian Rhapsody in the marketplace and yet another indicator that word-of-mouth (and no doubt repeat business) continues to be strong for the Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper romance.
With Halloween the holiday now in the past, Halloween the movie dropped rather sharply this weekend, falling 64% to fifth place with an estimated $11 million in its third weekend. That gives the Universal title $150.4 million after 17 days of release, a total that places it in the Top 4 R-rated horror releases of all time not adjusting for inflation, below only It ($327.8 million), The Exorcist ($232.9 million) and Get Out ($176 million).
In sixth, Venom took in an estimated $7.8 million in its fifth weekend of release, giving the superhero title a $198.6 million cume. The Sony release will cross the $200 million mark by next weekend.
Seventh place went to Smallfoot, which took in an estimated $3.8 million for a total of $77.4 million after six weeks of release, while Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween brought in an estimated $3.7 million in eighth for a $43.8 million total after four weeks.
Hunter Killer fell to eighth place with $3.5 million, representing a 46% drop from its soft $6.6 million debut. With just $12.9 million so far, the submarine actioner will is looking to finish its run as star Gerard Butler’s lowest-grossing release since 2012’s Playing for Keeps ($13.1 million).
Ninth and tenth went to Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween and The Hate U Give, which brought in an estimated $3.7 million and $3.4 million, respectively. Goosebumps has $43.8 million after four weeks of release, while Hate has a healthy $23.4 million tally after five weeks.
Outside the Top 10, Amazon Studios expanded Beautiful Boy to 540 theaters after three weekends of limited release and brought in an estimated $1.4 million, good for a per-screen average of $2,620. Additionally, the distributor took Suspiria semi-wide and grossed an estimated $964K from 311 locations, for a per-screen average of $3,102. The horror remake now has $1.2 million in the bank after releasing in just two theaters last weekend.
More to come…
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Rocks w/ $50M; ‘Nutcracker’ Disappoints w/ $20M, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ Counter-Programs to $14M appeared first on BoxOffice Pro.
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