Bohemian Rhapsody Passes Walk The Line as Second-Highest Grossing Music Biopic

Rami Malek-starring Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is now the second highest-grossing music biopic of all time.

Bohemian Rhapsody surpasses Walk The Line, the 2005 retelling of the story of Johnny Cash and June Carter starring Joaquin Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon, respectively. Grossing $119 million during its run, Walk The Line stood at No. 1 among highest-grossing music biopics for nearly a decade following its release before being unseated by Straight Outta Compton in 2015 when the N.W.A. biopic made $161 million during its U.S. theatrical run.

Despite drawing harsh critiques for factual errors, namely regarding Freddie Mercury’s HIV diagnosis and the writers’ choice to use this as the catalyst for the band’s reunion in a timeline quite different from actual events, the film has reached $127 million in the three weeks since its release. Topping off this number was the $15 million raised by the film in week three, putting it third in the week’s box office numbers behind Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald and The Grinch, respectively, according to a Variety report.

Overall, Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed $384 million in its first three weeks, with 66 percent of that revenue ($256 million) coming from overseas sales. Considering the film was made on a $52 million production budget, the biopic is a huge success, even if it doesn’t overcome the $34 million keeping it from surpassing Straight Outta Compton.

Check out Paste’s review of Bohemian Rhapsody here and see a trailer for the film below. You can hear a 1977 Queen performance from the Paste archives further down.