Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody Remains a Top Draw

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has remained a top box office draw in its second weekend in theaters as it added $31 million to the $51 million it raked in on its opening weekend. That brings the U.S. total to just over $100 million. The worldwide take is at $285 million. Not bad for a film with a production budget of $55 million.

Bo Rhap is now the third highest-grossing music bio-pic behind N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton in 2015 with just over $161 million and the Johnny Cash story, 2005’s Walk the Line with $119.5 million.

However, Bohemian Rhapsody did not go over well with the Malaysian Film Censorship Board.  It cut the scenes that dealt with Freddie Mercury’s sexuality due to that country’s strict laws against homosexuality.

So, if you happen to be headed there anytime soon and plan to take in the film, you’ll miss Freddie kissing two men (not at the same time), as well as his telling his fiance Mary Austin that he’s bisexual, and the video for “I Want to Break Free,” which has the band dressed in drag.

Human Rights Watch has spoken out about this, saying that discrimination against LGBT people in Malaysia is “pervasive.”

The soundtrack to the film has benefited from the movie being a top draw at the box office. It jumped from number-25 to three on the Billboard 200 in the week since the movie’s release with 59,000 units sold. This is Queen’s highest-charting album since 1980, when The Game spent five weeks at number-one.

Also benefiting from the film is Greatest Hits I II & III: The Platinum Collection, which goes from 194 up to nine with 39,000 units sold. And Greatest Hits goes from 71 up to 48.

This is the first time Queen have two albums in the Top 10 and it’s their first visit there since Classic Queen in 1992, and that was due to the success of the movie Wayne’s World, which featured “Bohemian Rhapsody.”