Category: Movies

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swings to top of the box office

There’s a new Spider-Man in town — and he’s on top of the box office.

Sony’s stylish animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which features an Afro-Latino teen named Miles Morales under the mask (voiced by Shameik Moore), is on track to sell an estimated $35.4 million in tickets at 3,813 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday. In doing so, it will handily become the No. 1 film in North America, ending Ralph Breaks the Internet’s three-week reign, while also scoring the biggest December opening ever for an animated movie.

Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood’s crime drama The Mule is off to a solid start, and the Peter Jackson-produced dystopian tale Mortal Engines is shaping up as a big-budget flop.

Heading into the weekend, Into the Spider-Verse had been projected to debut in the $30 million to $40 million range. Made for about $90 million, film represents Sony’s latest effort to mine the popularity of the Spider-Man mythos, which it has long licensed from Marvel. In October, the studio released the Spider-Man-adjacent live-action film Venom, which has grossed $852.7 million at the worldwide box office.

And of course, Sony has brought three different live-action incarnations of Peter Parker’s web-slinger to the screen over the years: Toby Maguire in the Spider-Man movies (the first of which opened to $114.8 million in 2002), Andrew Garfield in the Amazing Spider-Man movies (the first of which opened to $62 million in 2012), and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming (which opened to $117 million last year and cemented the character’s place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, Into the Spider-Verse finds Morales teaming up with similarly powered Spider-People from different dimensions (including a parallel-universe Peter Parker voiced by Jake Johnson) to battle the notorious crime boss known as Kingpin (Liev Schreiber). Critics’ reviews have been excellent, and audiences gave it an A-plus CinemaScore, indicating strong word-of-mouth prospects. Overseas, the film will add an estimated $21 million this weekend.

Sony is already eyeing a Spider-Verse sequel and a separate spin-off.

Trotting into second place is The Mule, the latest directorial effort from Eastwood, within an estimated $17.2 million. That figure is in line with industry expectations and puts it ahead of Eastwood’s previous film, The 15:17 to Paris, which opened to $12.5 million in February.

In addition to directing, Eastwood stars as Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who, when facing foreclosure of his business, signs on to a job as a driver, which turns out to be a courier gig for a Mexican drug cartel. Dianne Wiest, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia, Laurence Fishburne, and Bradley Cooper costar in the Warner Bros. release. While critics generally assessed The Mule as middling output from Eastwood, audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

The weekend’s other major new release, Universal’s Mortal Engines, will squeak into the top five with an estimated $7.5 million, on the low-end of already muted expectations. That would seem to spell trouble for a film that reportedly cost at least $100 million to produce. In spite of Jackson’s involvement (as producer and co-writer), the film isn’t faring much better overseas, taking in about $11.5 million this weekend.

Taking place hundreds of years after an apocalyptic event, Mortal Engines stars Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw, a mysterious young woman singled out to stop London — which has become a giant predatory city on wheels. Hugo Weaving, Robert Sheehan, and Ronan Raftery also star in the film, which is based on the Philip Reeve book of the same name. Critics raked the film, and audiences didn’t show it much love either, bestowing it with a B-minus CinemaScore.

Animated films continue to hold strong at the box office, with Universal’s The Grinch taking the No. 3 spot with an estimated $11.6 million for the weekend and Disney’s Ralph Breaks the Internet claiming fourth place with an estimated $9.6 million.

In limited release, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins’ awards hopeful If Beale Street Could Talk will debut with an estimated $219,173 at just four locations, which works out to a strong per-screen average of $54,793. Based on the book by James Baldwin and released by Annapurna, the film stars KiKi Layne, Stephan James, and Regina King.

Overall box office is up 8.6 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Dec. 14-16 figures below.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — $35.4 million
2. The Mule — $17.2 million
3. The Grinch — $11.6 million
4. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $9.6 million
5. Mortal Engines — $7.5 million
6. Creed II — $5.4 million
7. Bohemian Rhapsody — $4.1 million
8. Instant Family — $3.72 million
9. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $3.65 million
10. Green Book — $2.8 million

Ralph Breaks the Internet makes it three in a row at the box office

Ralph Breaks the Internet hasn’t run out of extra lives yet.

On a slow weekend at the box office featuring no major new releases, Disney’s pixel-powered sequel is on track to edge out fellow animated film The Grinch to claim the No. 1 spot for the third week in a row. From Friday through Sunday, Ralph will take in an estimated $16.1 million at 3,795 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

That amount brings the film’s domestic total to $140.9 million after 19 days in theaters. Overseas, Ralph will add about $34.1 million this weekend, for a worldwide tally of $258.2 million.

Following up 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet once again stars John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman as a pair of videogame pals who embark on a journey of self-discovery — this time in cyberspace. Reviews have been positive, and audiences gave the movie an A-minus CinemaScore.

The rest of the top five should be a repeat of last weekend, with Ralph followed by Universal’s holiday tale The Grinch ($15.2 million), MGM’s Rocky installment Creed II ($10.3 million), Warner Bros’. wizarding caper Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ($6.8 million), and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody ($6 million).

While none of the major studios had new wide-release offerings this weekend, Universal re-released Schindler’s List in 1,029 theaters to mark the film’s 25th anniversary, earning an estimated $550,000.

Warner Bros. also made a splash in China this weekend, unveiling the superhero tentpole Aquaman to the tune of $93.6 million. The film opens Dec. 21 in the U.S.

In limited release, Focus Features’ Mary Queen of Scots will debut with about $200,000 in four locations, which works out to a strong per-screen average of $50,000. Neon’s Vox Lux arrives in six theaters with about $162,252 (a per-screen average of $27,042), and Roadside Attractions’ Ben Is Back bows with about $80,972 on four screens (a per-screen average of $20,243).

Next weekend’s multiplex offerings include the steampunk saga Mortal Engines, the crime drama The Mule, and the animated adventure Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Overall box office is up 9.9 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Dec. 7-9 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $16.1 million
2. The Grinch — $15.2 million
3. Creed II — $10.3 million
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $6.8 million
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $6 million
6. Instant Family — $5.6 million
7. Green Book — $3.9 million
8. Robin Hood — $3.6 million
9. The Possession of Hannah Grace — $3.2 million
10. Widows — $3.1 million

Ralph Breaks the Internet tops box office again on quiet weekend

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the high scorer at the box office for the second week in a row.

With only one major new release to contend with — Sony’s horror film The Possession of Hannah Grace — Disney’s candy-colored Wreck-It Ralph sequel is on pace to sell an estimated $25.8 million in tickets at 4,017 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday, topping the chart and holding off The Grinch and Creed II.

After helping to power the biggest Thanksgiving box office on record, Ralph will decline about 54 percent over its second frame (a respectable figure), bringing its North American total to $119.3 million. Overseas, it will add about $33.7 million this weekend, for a worldwide total of $207 million.

Reviews have been favorable for the film, which stars John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman as two pixelated pals who venture into cyberspace for the first time. Moviegoers gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Filling out the top five are Universal’s animated Dr. Seuss tale The Grinch, with about $17.7 million; MGM’s Rocky film Creed II, with about $16.8 million; Warner Bros.’ wizarding world adventure Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, with about $11.2 million; and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, with about $8.1 million.

The Possession of Hannah Grace will debut in the No. 7 spot, earning an estimated $6.5 million at 3,148 North American theaters. The opening is on par with expectations for the film, which reportedly cost less than $10 million to make.

Directed by Diederik Van Rooijen, Hannah Grace stars Shay Mitchell as former cop and recovering addict working the graveyard shift at a morgue, where a newly arrived cadaver (Kirby Johnson) has other thoughts about staying dead. Critics were underwhelmed by the movie, while audiences gave it a C-minus CinemaScore.

In limited release, Orion’s zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse is arriving in five theaters with an estimated $50,000 (a per-screen average of $10,000).

The post-Thanksgiving weekend is typically a quiet one in terms of major studio releases, and there are none on the calendar for next week either, but the rest of December will bring such high-profile offerings as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Aquaman, Bumblebee, and Mary Poppins Returns.

Overall box office is up 10.1 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Nov. 30-Dec. 2 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $25.8 million
2. The Grinch — $17.7 million
3. Creed II — $16.8 million
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $11.2 million
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $8.1 million
6. Instant Family — $7.2 million
7. The Possession of Hannah Grace — $6.5 million
8. Robin Hood — $4.7 million
9. Widows — $4.4 million
10. Green Book — $3.9 million

Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II power record Thanksgiving box office

A destruction-prone but well-meaning arcade character and a score-settling young boxer are taking the Thanksgiving box office to new heights.

Led by the strong openings of Disney’s animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet and MGM’s Rocky successor Creed II, the Wednesday-Sunday North American box office total will be the biggest in the holiday’s history, coming in at an estimated $314 million. According to Comscore, this will be the first time the five-day frame has crossed the $300 million mark.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the weekend’s high scorer, selling an estimated $55.7 million in tickets at 4,017 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday though Sunday, and an estimated $84.5 million since its Wednesday debut. The latter figure represents the second-highest Thanksgiving bow ever (not adjusted for inflation), behind Frozen’s $93.6 million. Overseas, Ralph will add about $41.5 million this weekend, for a worldwide total of $126 million. The film reportedly cost $175 million to make.

Featuring the voices of John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman, Ralph Breaks the Internet is the sequel to 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph, and follows the titular hero as he ventures into cyberspace for the first time. Critics’ reviews have been favorable, and audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Meanwhile, Creed II is stepping into the ring with an estimated $35.3 million from Friday to Sunday, good for second place, and an estimated $55.8 million over its first five days, which is easily the top Thanksgiving start for a live-action movie. (Four Christmases previously held the title, with $46.1 million.) The film cost at least $40 million to make.

Directed by Steven Caple Jr., taking the franchise reins from Ryan Coogler, Creed II finds Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) facing off against Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) the son of the man (Dolph Lundgren) who killed his father in a boxing match years ago. Sylvester Stallone reprises his role as Rocky Balboa, young Creed’s mentor, and also co-wrote the screenplay (with Juel Taylor). Reviews have been solid, and moviegoers gave it an A CinemaScore.

Not every new film is hitting its target, however. Lionsgate’s big-budget Robin Hood will earn an estimated $9.1 million at 2,827 from Friday through Sunday, and $14.2 million over the five-day frame. That’s a disappointment for a film that cost nearly $100 million to make, and lands it in seventh place for the weekend.

Starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx and directed by Otto Bathurst, Robin Hood has been panned by critics, while audiences gave it a B CinemaScore.

Rounding out this weekend’s top five are Universal’s animated Dr. Seuss adaptation The Grinch, with an estimated $30.2 million; Warner Bros’. Harry Potter spin-off/prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, with an estimated $29.7 million; and Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, with an estimated $13.9 million.

In limited release, Fox Searchlight’s historical drama The Favourite is bowing with an estimated $420,000 at just four theaters, which works out to a per-screen average of $105,000 — the best of 2018. Yorgos Lanthimos directed the critically acclaimed film, which is set amid the scheming court of Queen Anne during the early 1700s. Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz star.

Netflix also unveiled its awards hopeful Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, in three theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, but the company is not reporting grosses.

Overall box office is up 10.2 percent year-to-date. See the Nov. 23-25 figures below.

1. Ralph Breaks the Internet — $55.7 million ($84.5 million five-day)
2. Creed II — $35.3 million ($55.8 million five-day)
3. The Grinch — $30.2 million ($42 million five-day)
4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $29.7 million ($42.9 million five-day)
5. Bohemian Rhapsody — $13.9 million ($19.2 million five-day)
6. Instant Family — $12.5 million ($17.4 million five-day)
7. Robin Hood — $9.1 million ($14.2 million five-day)
8. Widows — $8 million ($10.6 million five-day)
9. Green Book — $5.4 million ($7.4 million five-day)
10. A Star Is Born — $3 million ($4.1 million five-day)

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald charms box office with $26 million opening

Controversies and poor critical reviews don’t seem to have an impact on Harry Potter fans because Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald already made $100 million worldwide.

The latest cinematic installment to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world earned $25.7 million in ticket sales since opening in the U.S. with late Thursday night screenings. This puts it on track to reach upwards of $65 million domestically by weekend’s end, and the opening night tally adds to $74.3 million the film racked up internationally.

The Crimes of Grindelwald, based on a screenplay by Rowling and helmed by longtime Harry Potter film director David Yates, earned an A CinemaScore from audiences. The response from reviewers wasn’t nearly as positive.

The story continues the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. With dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (the newly Relevio-ed Johnny Depp) amassing followers across Europe, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), Newt’s old Hogwarts professor who knew Grindelwald in his youth, tasks his former pupil to thwart these efforts.

Katherine Waterson, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, and Ezra Miller also return for The Crimes of Grindelwald, which introduces Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, Callum Turner as Newt’s brother Theseus, and Claudia Kim as Nagini.

“It is, well… a lot,” EW’s Leah Greenblatt writes. “And as Rowling piles on the mythology and backstories and subplots, the movie begins to feel a little bit like walking into a wind tunnel and being asked, in 134 minutes, to put the swirling pages of her wildly dense script back together.” Paired with far more merciless reviews, The Crimes of Grindelwald sits at an abysmal 39 percent “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.

Drama surrounding one of the film’s stars also threatened to derail the debut. Rowling and Yates stood by Depp when the actor was accused of emotion and physical abuse by ex-wife Amber Heard two years prior. Depp denied the claims at the time and the two reached a settlement in 2016. In supporting Depp, Warner Bros. quoted a portion of the joint statement the actor released with Heard in the aftermath of the settlement, but Heard responded by sharing the remarks in full, adding, “To pick and choose certain lines and quote them out of context, is just not right.”

“The fact remains I was falsely accused, which is why I’m suing the Sun newspaper for defamation for repeating false accusations,” Depp told EW. “J.K. has seen the evidence and therefore knows I was falsely accused, and that’s why she has publicly supported me. She doesn’t take things lightly. She would not stand up if she didn’t know the truth. So that’s really it.”

Additional controversies swirled around the characters of Dumbledore and Nagini. Rowling confirmed her beloved Hogwarts headmaster to be gay, but Yates said the film wouldn’t “explicitly” feature that portrayal. Others took issue with the fact that Kim plays a character which sees a Korean woman eventually transforming into the pet of a powerful white man (Lord Voldemort).

According to research from Fandom, however, these stories don’t seem to have an effect on Potterheads — and the box office numbers appear to support that.

“What these fans are focused on is the deep, deep world of lore,” Angelina Fadool, Fandom’s director of content operations, told Variety. “Press and other external factors — good, bad, or indifferent — it doesn’t effect the world of the film for them.”

James Cameron: The ‘Avatar’ Sequels Have Wrapped Production

This just in from Pandora: James Cameron says the Avatar sequels have reached a major milestone with the completion of all principal photography involving main cast members.

In a video message, the director of the two highest-grossing films of all time (Avatar and Titanic) praised the ensemble of actors who have been filming Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 since September 2017.

“Hi, James Cameron here and today I’m coming to you from the set of the Avatar sequels — and behind me you can see our performance-capture stage. Today we’re capturing some stunt scenes filming some stunt scenes but our principal cast are all wrapped: Sam [Worthington], Zoe [Saldana], Sigourney [Weaver], Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet.”

The Oscar-winning filmmaker added: “They’re done now but they gave us incredible performances. And I can’t tell you how proud I am of the work that they did on these films.”

Avatar 2 is due in theaters on December 18, 2020, and will be followed by Avatar 3 on December 17, 2021. Two additional sequels are planned after that if the first pair deliver the kind of box-office success that Fox and Cameron are expecting.

In the video message, Cameron then turned to a different project as he explained the ambition and artistry of Alita: Battle Angel , which reaches theaters in February.

Cameron fell in love with the namesake source material, the cyberpunk saga created by Yukito Kishiro in the 1990s, and flirted with making it into a movie in the mid-2000s but ultimately set it aside in favor of making the first Avatar.

In 2015, director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Spy Kids) came on board as director for Alita with Cameron producing (along with his longtime partner, Jon Landau). The film’s approach — a dreamy futuristic setting yet with photorealistic anime visuals — is being billed as a game-changer (not unlike Cameron’s Terminator 2 and Avatar) but that could be an elusive sell to moviegoers.

Which explains why Cameron was using his Avatar publicity and social media megaphone to tether the two franchises and boost the fledgling Alita.

‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ Wins Top Honors At Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards

The winners for the third annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards were announced Saturday with Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? taking the top honor of Best Documentary. The winners were determined by members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA).

The Mr. Rogers documentary also nabbed Best Director for Neville as well as Best Editing. The nail-biting rock climbing documentary directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi also won three awards including Best Sports Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary, and Best Cinematography.

Hosted by Bill Nye at BRIC in Brooklyn, the ceremony also honored Michael Moore with the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Robert De Niro. In addition, Joe Berlinger renowned documentarian Stanley Nelson was honored with the Critics’ Choice Impact Award. Berlinger earned the same honor last year.

Other winners of the evening included the Ruth Bader Ginsbug pic RBG, Rashida Jones’ Netflix docu Quincy, chronicling the life of her legendary father Quincy Jones as well as Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown for Best Ongoing Documentary Series. There was also a tie for Best First Time Director between Bing Liu for Minding the Gap and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster for Science Fair. The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards also introduced the Catalyst Sponsorship, a program for industry leaders to support the event.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Best Limited Documentary Series: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling

Best Ongoing Documentary Series: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Best Director: Morgan Neville for Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Best First Time Director: TIE: Bing Liu for Minding the Gap, and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster for Science Fair

Best Political Documentary: RBG

Best Sports Documentary: Free Solo

Best Music Documentary: Quincy

Most Innovative Documentary: Free Solo

Best Cinematography: Free Solo

Best Editing: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

The Grinch makes off with $66 million at the box office

A dragon-tattooed hacker heroine and a horde of Nazi zombies have nothing on The Grinch this weekend.

Universal Pictures and Illumination’s animated take on the beloved Dr. Seuss holiday tale is on track to sell an estimated $66 million in tickets at 4,141 theaters in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Sunday, outpacing fellow new releases The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Overlord and topping the box office.

Heading into the weekend, The Grinch had been expected to debut in the $55 million to $65 million range. The film, which cost about $75 million to make, is off to a solid start, although its opening trails Illumination’s previous Seuss adaptation The Lorax ($81 million, adjusting for inflation) and Universal’s 2000 live-action film How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($85.1 million, adjusting for inflation). Overseas, The Grinch will add about $12.7 million this weekend, for a global total of $78.7 million.

Directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier, The Grinch stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous yuletide thief, who schemes to ruin Christmas in Whoville because his heart is a few sizes too small. Critics’ reviews have been mixed, but audiences gave it an A-minus CinemaScore.

Faring less well in their opening frames are Paramount’s World War II-themed splatterfest Overlord, which will take in about $10.1 million at 2,859 theaters, good for third place, and Sony’s Dragon Tattoo sequel/reboot The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which will earn about $8 million on 2,929 screens, giving it a tenuous hold on the No. 5 spot.

Directed by Julius Avery and produced by J.J. Abrams, Overlord stars Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, and John Magaro as American paratroopers who are sent on a mission to destroy a German radio tower on the eve of D-Day, only to run afoul of secret Nazi experiments. Reviews were solid, while moviegoers gave it a so-so B CinemaScore.

Girl in the Spider’s Web also earned a B CinemaScore, though unlike Overlord it failed to make an impression on critics. Fede Alvarez directed the movie, which finds Claire Foy taking up the mantle of Lisbeth Salander in a cat-and-mouse thriller involving a stolen computer program that controls the world’s nuclear arsenal.

Rounding out the top five this weekend are Fox’s Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, in second place with an estimated $30.9 million, and Disney’s live-action fantasy Nutcracker and the Four Realms, in fourth with an estimated $9.6 million. Both films opened last week.

In limited release, Sony’s biographical drama The Front Runner, about the rise and fall of senator and presidential candidate Gary Hart (played by Hugh Jackman), opened Tuesday, coinciding with the midterm elections. But the awards hopeful will take in just $56,000 at four theaters this weekend, which works out a lackluster per-screen average of $14,000.

Overall box office is up 10.4 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Nov. 9-11 figures below.

1. The Grinch — $66 million
2. Bohemian Rhapsody — $30.9 million
3. Overlord — $10.1 million
4. Nutcracker and the Four Realms — $9.6 million
5. Girl in the Spider’s Web — $8 million
6. A Star Is Born — $8 million
7. Nobody’s Fool — $6.5 million
8. Venom — $4.9 million
9. Halloween — $3.8 million
10. The Hate U Give — $2.1 million

How ‘Wayne’s World’ made ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a phenomenon again

Bohemian Rhapsody was such an unlikely song that became an even more unlikely hit.

The Queen biopic of the same name, now in theatres, depicts the original story of how the rock-operatic single came to be, with a cameo from none other than Mike Myers.

In the film, Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) threatens to walk out on the label if the record executive – played by Myers – refuses to release Bohemian Rhapsody as the first single off its album A Night at the Opera.

Including Myers makes sense, especially since, in real life, he did just the opposite of the character he plays.

In 1975, Bohemian Rhapsody became Queen’s first No. 1 hit on U.K. singles chart, where it remained for nine weeks, a record for a British band. And it returned to that position in December 1991 after Bohemian Rhapsody was rereleased in the wake of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s death.

Bohemian Rhapsody had never been as big of a hit in North America. It reached only the No. 9 position on Billboard’s Hot 100 when it first came out. That is, until Myers’ Wayne’s World.

The movie, released in February 1992, featured Bohemian Rhapsody in what’s become one of comedy’s most iconic scenes. The film based on the Myers-created Saturday Night Live sketch opens with Wayne, the rock-obsessed host of a public access show, getting picked up in a 1970s beat-up AMC Pacer.

“I think I’ll go with a little Bohemian Rhapsody, gentlemen,” Wayne tells his buddies. “Good call,” responds Garth.

In goes the cassette, and the song begins at its midway point. They sing along, each taking their own “Galileo” parts, and when the break comes, they headbang like crazy.

Just like that, a whole new generation was introduced to Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time. It shot to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing its original high point,

Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t just randomly end up Wayne’s World.

“At that time, Queen had –not by me of course and by true hardcore music fans – but the public had sort of forgotten about them a little bit,” Myers said during a 2014 episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. “Freddie had gotten sick. The last time we had seen them was on Live Aid, and then there was a few albums afterward where they were sort of straying away from their arena rock roots. But I always loved Bohemian Rhapsody. It was a masterpiece, and so I fought really, really hard for it.”

It was Myers’ first movie, and he found inspiration in his Toronto adolescence, when he, his brother and their friends would drive around and sing the Queen classic.

“If I took somebody else’s ‘Galileo!’ or somebody took mine, a fight would ensue,” Myers told Rolling Stone. “It’s just something that I always back-pocketed. Wayne’s World was my childhood. I knew only to write what I knew.”

The song also conveyed a sort of silly abandon Meyers wanted for his characters; plus, it would help make the movie feel as if you were not exactly sure what year it was, he told Maron.

But producer Lorne Michaels “was suggesting Guns N’ Roses … because at the time, Guns N’ Roses had a No. 1 song,” Myers told Rolling Stone. “I said, ‘I hear you. I think that’s really smart,’ but I didn’t have any jokes for a Guns N’ Roses song. I had lots of jokes for Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s just inherently comedic.”

Director Penelope Spheeris told Rolling Stone she did not “personally remember a big argument about the placement of Bohemian Rhapsody, but my guess is that I was probably pushing for Guns N’ Roses.”

Then, at some point, Myers threatened to walk out of the movie altogether. “I said to everybody, ‘Well I’m out. I don’t want to make this movie if it’s not Bohemian Rhapsody, and they were like, who the F are you?” Myers told Maron. “And I said, ‘I’m somebody that wants to do that movie, that’s the movie I want to do.”

Myers eventually won out, and they shot the cruising scene throughout an entire night.

Queen guitarist Brian May told Rolling Stone that Myers gave him a tape of the scene and that he took to Mercury, who was sick at the time. “Freddie loved it,” May said. “He just laughed and thought it was great, this little video. The funny thing was, we always regarded the song as tongue in cheek ourselves. If it would come on the radio, we would all be headbanging when it came to the heavy bit as well, us as a group. It was very close to our sense of humor.”

The scene does not last for very long. But it is seared into the consciousness of entire generations. You cannot help but want to headbang when the song reaches its climactic point.

Bohemian Rhapsody was included on the Wayne’s World soundtrack and a new Queen anthology collection. A Los Angeles Times story at the time noted the song enjoyed a resurgence especially on Top 40 radio “where Queen has not been played regularly for years.”

KIIS-FM music director Michael Martin told the newspaper, “We’re getting kids calling up and asking for Bohemian Rap City. It’s a totally different audience than when it first came out.”

For his part, Myers said he never stuck to his vision because he thought the song would once again become a big hit.

“That’s not me being Nostradamus,” Myers told Maron in 2014. “That’s just me going, ‘Well, what I do want to see? What movie do I want to see?’ I would want to see the movie where it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody rules the box office with $50 million debut

Bohemian Rhapsody is proving to be box office dynamite (with a laser beam?).

Twentieth Century Fox’s foot-stomping biopic about the influential British rock band Queen is on track to sell an estimated $50 million in tickets at 4,000 theaters in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, far exceeding expectations and easily dethroning Halloween as the No. 1 film in North America. Starring Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) as Queen’s charismatic frontman, Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody will notch the second biggest opening for a music biopic ever, behind 2015’s Straight Outta Compton ($60.2 million).

Heading into the weekend, the film had been projected to debut in the $35 million to $40 million range. It cost about $52 million to make. Overseas, it will add about $72.5 million in ticket sales this weekend.

Tracing Queen’s rise to stardom, internal conflicts, and reconciliation ahead of a legendary Live Aid performance in 1985, Bohemian Rhapsody has had a long and winding path to the screen. For years, Sacha Baron Cohen had been attached to play Mercury, but he left the project in 2013 over creative differences. Later, director Bryan Singer was fired partway through filming after an extended absence that led to a production shutdown, and Dexter Fletcher was brought in to finish the movie. (Singer is the sole credited director.)

Setbacks notwithstanding, Bohemian Rhapsody is off to a strong start, and moviegoers gave it an A CinemaScore. Film critics were less impressed, though many have praised Malek’s performance.

Arriving with less fanfare this weekend are Disney’s live-action fantasy The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, in second place with about $20 million, and Paramount’s comedy Nobody’s Fool, in third place with about $14 million. Both films are coming in toward the low end of industry projections.

Directed by Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston, Nutcracker and the Four Realms is a big-budget retelling of the beloved story about a young girl (Mackenzie Foy) who receives a precious Christmas gift that leads her on a journey to a fantastical new world. Critics were unimpressed by the movie, while audiences gave it a B-plus CinemaScore.

Nobody’s Fool, meanwhile, is the first R-rated comedy from Tyler Perry and stars Tiffany Haddish as an ex-con who helps her sister (Tika Sumpter) deal with a potential catfishing situation. Reviews were also poor, though the film received an A-minus CinemaScore.

Rounding out the top five this weekend are Warner Bros’. music-driven romance A Star Is Born, with about $11.1 million, and Universal’s slasher reboot/sequel Halloween, with about $11 million.

In limited release, Focus Features’ gay-conversion drama Boy Erased is debuting in five theaters with an estimated $220,000 (a strong per-screen average of $44,000), and Aviron’s A Private War, about slain war correspondent Marie Colvin, is opening in four theaters with an estimated $72,000 (a per-screen average of $18,000).

Overall box office is up 10.7 percent year-to-date, according to Comscore. See the Nov. 2-4 figures below.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody — $50 million
2. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms — $20 million
3. Nobody’s Fool — $14 million
4. A Star Is Born — $11.1 million
5. Halloween — $11 million
6. Venom — $7.9 million
7. Smallfoot — $3.8 million
8. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween — $3.7 million
9. Hunter Killer — $3.5 million
10. The Hate U Give — $3.4 million