Report: Queen Still Making Over $137K Daily From ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Biopic
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody biopic focusing on the life of singer Freddie Mercury was a huge box office hit in 2018 and it continues to rake in the money two-and-a-half years beyond its release. Music News cites a report from Companies House stating that Queen Productions is still earning over £100,000 ($137,864) a day from the film.
In 2019, less than a year after the movie's release, guitarist Brian May was quoted as stating the band hadn't earned a penny from the film. May stated at the time. “It's incredible around the world. It's, like, a billion-dollar movie. I had to laugh the other day, because there's a thing in the paper saying that we were getting rich off this movie. If they only knew.” The guitarist then pondered, “We had an accountant in the other day, and we still haven't earned a penny from it. How successful does a movie have to be before you make money?"
But the film may finally be yielding a financial return for the group as the new report suggests that May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and the estate of Freddie Mercury are sharing in the film's payout with £20,170,000 ($27,793,352) divided between them.
While the living members of Queen are key figures in the film, the movie more centered on the life of Mercury as played by Rami Malek. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, Malek won the Best Actor Oscar and the film took home Oscars for Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing as well. The film also was a box office hit, making over £654,000,000 ($900 million) since its release.
While huge box office films often yield a sequel, May was quoted in 2020 as stating a follow-up to Bohemian Rhapsody was "unlikely." "There's a million things in our career which you couldn't show in a movie since the movie had to be so simplified to make it watchable," May explained. "But we don't really think there's another movie there. That's the long and the short of it. I think we should look somewhere else. There are other ideas that we had, but I don't think a sequel will happen. But we have looked at it pretty seriously."