'Bohemian Rhapsody' Sends Thunderbolts And Lightning Through B.O. As Freddie Mercury Biopic Hits $50M Opening
If there's ever a perfect bliss for any studio executive, producer or filmmaker, it's when a movie, which has had an embattled path to the screen, greatly succeeds and that's what's occurring for the second time at the weekend box office this fall as 20th Century Fox/New Regency/GK Films' Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is blasting past its $35M-$40M expectations with, yes, a $50M opening this morning according to early industry estimates after a $18.8M Saturday. All in Global is at $141.7M with $10.2M of that number coming from Imax. On Friday night we hear there were a handful of theaters that were incomplete sending weekend numbers higher with distributors revising their weekend figures lower on Saturday morning, but let's face it, Bohemian Rhapsody had all the momentum to overindex: Audiences remain crazy in love with Bohemian Rhapsody giving it an A CinemaScore, 88% overall positive and four-and-half stars on Screen Engine/ComScore's PostTrak, topped off with a super definite recommend of 75%. They also have a hunger to see the movie in a concert-like environment, meaning the dynamic sound of premium formats. Imax drove $6.2M of the weekend B.O. repping 12% of ticket sales and premium large format screens generating 17% of all ticket sales. Prior to its opening stateside, many knew the Queen pic was going to work when it swept up $13M in the UK last weekend. In addition, Bohemian Rhapsody wasn't just a success around the nation last night, but at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences last night where the official screening was held to a packed crowd of about 800 with the entire audience delivering a standing ovation to star Rami Malek.
Overall demos for Bohemian Rhapsody are 51% female, 49% male with 77% over 25, 31% over 45, 52% under 35 with the single largest quad being 25-34 at 26%. Diversity demos shows 62% Caucasian, 20% Hispanic, 12% Asian and 6% African American. We hear that Bohemian played best in the West along with Canada but really performed well everywhere (8 of the top 10 grosses were from the West Coast).
While The Nutcracker is drawing 33% kids per PostTrak, Disney likely never expected that Bohemian Rhapsody would play so broad and young with an under 25 draw of 23%. CinemaScore is B+, with 3 stars from general audiences on PostTrak and a 49% recommend.
They saw a high concept in E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 holiday short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King; it was in their princess wheelhouse, and with an awards pedigree filmmaker and below-the-line team, the studio felt it was definitely worth the spend. But unlike the alchemy of Bohemian Rhapsody which is a nostalgic roller coaster rider for all generations, Nutcracker's elements didn't make for a great chemistry. After a trailer was flatly received at the studio's fan convention D23, Disney reportedly ordered another 32 extra days of reshoots with director Joe Johnston stepping in for Lasse Hallstrom (both decided to share co-directing credit). Still, there are other negative factors which slowed down business this weekend.
Some blame the release date for being too early for a holiday film, arriving too soon after Halloween. However, Disney needed to space Nutcracker away from Ralph Breaks the Internet during Thanksgiving, and they certainly weren't going to take a holiday film out at Christmas which is where they have Mary Poppins Returns. The marketing and the overall look of The Nutcracker also looked too similar to Beauty and the Beast. Not to mention, The Nutcracker screams ballet, which doesn't necessarily sell to a mainstream family audience even though there's not a lot of dancing in this movie. The movie has a darker tone than we're used to (not for under 7-year-olds who came out at 6%) and has little in it for boys (girls out-number them 60% to 40% under 12). Reviews, which complain about the pic's slow pace and lack of dance, hurt those mothers who otherwise would have taken their kids (without the nag factor) for nostalgic reasons. How often does a Disney movie had a 34% Rotten Tomatoes score? But again, few studios are powerful enough like Disney to take big budget gambles and take a hit on the chin. They're the box office kings of 2018 as they near $3 billion domestic and they'll be the rulers of 2019 with their franchise loaded schedule of Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars: Episode IX and live action toon adaptations such as Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Disney is reporting a 57% female turnout for Nutcracker, 57% over 25 with families repping 43%, adults 50% and teens 7%. 2D repped 82% of business, 3D 18%.
After an estimated $5.6M Saturday, +10% over Friday, Paramount's Tyler Perry movie Nobody's Fool is opening to $14M and while the studio kept it cheap at net $19M we've seen the director's other movies perform much better at these budgets. Given what the movie costs, it needs to make bank at the domestic B.O. Also, one major reason for the slowdown: Too much Tiffany Haddish at once on the marquee in a season. Night School, even though it opened six weeks ago, is the No. 12 pic this weekend with $1.9M and a $74.3M domestic B.O., and The Oath was playing in limited release for three weeks during October grossing over $400K. Nobody's Fool could have squeezed more money out during a less competitive weekend, say sometime in February or the spring where Perry's fare often does well. Few of his movies open in the teens,this one did. On the bright side those who bought tickets enjoyed it with an A- CinemaScore and four stars on PostTrak with Paramount calling exits at 61% females, 51% over 30 (PostTrack saw 75% over 25 on Friday night) and diversity demos of 51% African American, 24% Caucasian, and 19% Hispanic.
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