From left: Joseph Mazzello, Ben Hardy, Rami Malek and Gwilym Lee vibe the band Queen in the studio. (Photo: Alex Bailey / 20th Century Fox)

Bohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox’s operatic biopic of the band Queen was the box office champion this weekend, rocking the multiplex with a $51 million debut. The PG-13 film earned an additional $72.5  from the international marketplace for a global debut of $122.5, outperforming industry expectations and proving the rollicking tunefest review-proof. 

Overall, it was a good weekend for music movies, as per Comscore. Warner Bros. A Star Is Born continued to fill seats in week five, when it dropped to fourth place, picking up another $11 million, bringing its US box office total to $165.5 million as the soundtrack featuring Lady Gaga heads into its fourth week atop the Billboard Soundtracks chart. Meanwhile, Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms opened at No. 2 with a $20 million US haul. Composer James Newton Howard adapted his score in part form Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 composition.

Bohemian Rhapsody stars Rami Malek in a riveting performance as the late frontman Freddie Mercury in a funny, touching and visually stunning musical journey of a band considered to be one of rock ‘n’ roll’s all-time greats. The film also stars Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Mike Myers, Tom Hollander, Aidan Gillen, Allen Leech, Ben Hardy and is directed by Bryan Singer. The film has no underscore, although editor John Ottman (ACE), a composer who scored in addition to editing many of Singer’s prior films, did a masterful job placing the music (using some additional touches of opera and classic rock; the film is, satisfyingly, 99.9 percent Queen tunes). Though MaxTheTrax was overwhelmingly positive in its assessment, that proved the minority opinion, with critics widely panning the film.

Nutcracker And The Four Realms is directed by Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston and is inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s classic tale.  The film features an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Morgan Freeman, Omid Djalili, Richard E. Grant, Matthew Macfadyen, Eugenio Derbez, Miranda Hart, Jack Whitehall, Misty Copeland and Jayden Fowora-Knight.  Internationally the film earned $38.5M this weekend in 45 territories for a global opening weekend cume of $58.5M.

The third wide release opener of the weekend ending Nov. 4 is director Tyler Perry’s Nobody’s Fool, which earned $14.0 million for Paramount.   The R-rated comedy features a score by a younger composer, Philip White, who got his first solo composer credit for a feature with last year’s Boo 2! A Medea Halloween, and was prior to that working as a programmer with Christopher Lennertz.

Nobody’s Fool stars Tiffany Haddish and tells the story of a woman trying to get back on her feet, with the help of her buttoned-up, by the book sister (Tika Sumpter) to help her get back on track and as these polar opposites collide the comedy ensues.  The film also stars Whoopi Goldberg, Missi Pyle, Mehcad Brooks, Omari Hardwick, Courtney Henggeler and Amber Riley.

First-time director Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born is considered a prime awards season contender,  starring Cooper as an aging performer who hands the torch to leading Lady Gaga in a compelling performance supported by a cast that includes Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, Bonnie Somerville and Eddie Griffin.  The film generated $13.9M this weekend from approximately 5,145 screens in 73 markets in release.  This brings the international running cume to $128.3m and the global tally is now just shy of $300M at $293.9M.

Rounding out the Top 5, Universal’s presentation of “Halloween” after two weeks at the top of the chart earns $11.015 million in its third weekend for a North American cume of $150.409 million through Sunday in North America.  The Blumhouse film continues to draw audiences who are thrilled to have Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode to battle the epitome of pure evil in the form of Michael Myers.  The film earned $18.3M in 66 international territories and when combined with North America scared up $29.3M in this weekend and now boasts a global total of $229.6M.