Bohemian Rhapsody is the Box Office Champion

The 2018 box office continues to rock studios coffers, with new releases taking the top three spots at the box office for the first time since February, and holdovers continuing to defy expectations.

As expected, the champion was Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody, which delivered a headlining $51 million on 4,000 screens. Overseas, Rhapsody belted out $72.5 million from 64 markets for a global total of about $124 million. Despite middling reviews, the film was a hit with opening day audiences, earning an encore-worthy "A" CinemaScore.

In second, Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms came in on the low side of industry estimates, dancing to $20 million in 3,800 venues. Nutcracker also opened in 45 international markets, and imagined $39 million for a worldwide cume of about $59 million. The long-term prospects for this film look dark, with a mediocre "B+" audience score and poor reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Finishing in third, the weekend's other new release, Paramount's Nobody's Fool delivered a reasonable $13.7 million from 2,500 screens. The low-budget Tyler Perry comedy had enough laughs to earn an "A-" CinemaScore and should have no difficulty finding a profit from its $19 million production budget.

Not to be out-sung, Warner Bros.'s A Star is Born lost a minuscule 21% in its fifth weekend, adding another $11 million for a new domestic cume of about $166 million. Internationally, A Star is Born is also holding incredibly well, securing an additional $13.9 million for an overseas total of $128 million and a global cume of just under $300 million.

PageBreaks Take: Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born will continue to fight it out for adult audiences, while next week's much anticipated release of Universal's Grinch will likely steal a lot of holiday candy from family holdovers like Nutcracker and Smallfoot.

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