Bohemian Rhapsody Just Broke A Huge Box Office Record

20th Century Fox

Bohemian Rhapsody has broken a huge box office record and Queen have announced a new tour to celebrate its success!

The Freddie Mercury biopic was released across the world in late October and early November and has had people tapping their feet along to Queen songs in cinemas ever since.

Following the story of the band, and its frontman, as they took the world by storm the movie has been praised for the spot-on performance of Rami Malek as Mercury, though it has also faced some criticisms that the timeline of the singer’s illness was skewed for the story.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the film being successful, and this weekend it topped the US charts to become the highest grossing movie biopic.

20th Century Fox

According to Box Office Mojo, Bohemian Rhapsody has earned $164,423,150 in the US so far, beating the former record holder, Straight Outta Compton, by about $3 million.

Worldwide, the movie has raked in $539,564,825 in the weeks since its release, zooming past the N.W.A biopic which earned $201,634,991.

For me it’s easy to understand why the movie has been so successful. Viewers who are already Queen fans get to enjoy the recreation of some of the band’s finest moments, like their 1985 Live Aid performance, while those who weren’t so familiar with the band were able to learn more about its members and their music.

Though, viewers should go in with the acknowledgement that the true backstory has probably been reworked a bit for the purpose of cinematic entertainment.

Malek offered an outstanding performance showing his commitment to portraying Mercury accurately – in some scenes he recreated the frontman’s performance literally step for step, mirroring his head nods, hand gestures and dance moves.

The remaining members of the band have expressed their delight at how the movie turned out, with guitarist Brian May, who worked as one of the film’s producers, saying Malek deserves an Oscar for his performance.

According to Independent.ie, May said:

He’s incredible… without doubt he’ll be on the nominations list for an Oscar and well deserved as well. He inhabited Freddie to the point where we even started to think of him as Freddie. Really remarkable.

We’ve lived with this project for nine years and it’s incredible to see it doing so well.

20th Century Fox

Today (December 3), the band announced a new North American tour which, with the title ‘Rhapsody’, has come off the back of the movie’s release.

The news was posted to Queen’s official Twitter account, and explained the musicians would be hitting the road once again with Adam Lambert stepping in as lead singer.

The tweet read:

We’re excited to announce Queen + @adamlambert will be debuting the brand new Rhapsody touring show across 23 North America dates July-August 2019.

The press release explained how the success of the movie has reaffirmed the love for Queen’s music, encouraging the band members to step out in front of the crowds once again.

It read:

The soaring success of Bohemian Rhapsody – the Freddie Mercury/Queen movie that is set to become the biggest grossing music biopic of all time – has proven that the public’s love for Queen remains as strong as ever.

Fans who get to see the band live will no doubt to be treated to a lot of Queen’s classic songs which featured in Bohemian Rhapsody, as well as some of May’s killer guitar solos – it’s sure to be an awesome show!

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Emily Brown

Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.