All hail Queen! Bohemian Rhapsody kicks off the November box office and it’s likely to own the first weekend of the month in a big way, despite a mixed critical reception.
It’s clear that Queen is multi-generational. People that grew up with the band are all about the music and they passed it down to their kids who then passed it down to their own. They’re one of the few bands that has that widespread appeal because they made songs that were anthems that stand the test of time. It’s this appeal that should drive Bohemian Rhapsody to great success because the affection of the band trumps whatever negative review may say about the film.
Bohemian Rhapsody entered tracking weeks ago at about $30 million but it has since indexed even higher, especially after Fandango released their pre-sale info. Bohemian Rhapsody is already Fandango’s highest advance-ticket seller of the year for a movie musical, beating A Star Is Born and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again at the same time in their sales cycle. Tracking had A Star Is Born around $30 million pre-opening and the Bradley Cooper-directed Lady Gaga movie turned in a three-day gross of $42.9 million ($44.2 million with previews). Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again opened to $34.9 million over the summer and Bohemian Rhapsody will likely have no problem topping that.
The buzz on Rami Malek’s performance should also get butts in the seats because he seems like a front-runner for a Best Actor nomination (even critics that don’t like the film, praise him immensely). The reviews have actually leveled off a tad with the film barely being fresh at 60% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. Much like The Greatest Showman, which received mixed reviews from critics but big box office, Bohemian Rhapsody may prove to be critic-proof and open to at least $40 million this weekend.
Our other new wide release is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, another Disney effort that follows summer’s, Christopher Robin. The film will benefit from being the only real offering for kids but its long-term prospects seem questionable. The film currently has a 34% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing which could hurt business in the long run but for this weekend, I’m calling an opening in the $25 million range.
Our final new release is Tyler Perry’s Nobody’s Fool which stars Tiffany Haddish and Tika Sumpter. Haddish is on a role at the moment as she helped turned Night School into the highest-grossing pure comedy of the year (Crazy Rich Asians takes overall honors but it’s more of a romantic comedy). Tyler Perry usually proves to be solid counterprogramming and with Haddish on board, that should prove to be even more true. The film is 20% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing but negative reviews never hurt Perry, at least on opening weekend. I’m calling about $16-18 million and most of that goes to the star power of Tiffany Haddish at the moment.
Check back on Monday for the full box office results!
