The Queen biopic was not received warmly by critics

Bohemian Rhapsody has officially claimed the second biggest box office opening of all-time for a music biopic.

The Queen biopic opened in cinemas in the UK last month and followed in the US last week (November 2). On its opening weekend in North America, it took $50 million (£38.3 million), while its international figures totalled $72 million (£55.2 million).

That means only the N.W.A. movie Straight Outta Compton has had a stronger start than Bohemian Rhapsody, even taking inflation into account. Straight Outta Compton took $60.2 million (£46.2 million) on its opening weekend in the US.

Not even a slew of negative reviews could stop the new Rami Malek-starring movie from achieving the feat. The film was not received well by critics, with it currently possessing a score of only 59 percent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Meanwhile, the cast of Bohemian Rhapsody filmed a full recreation of Queen’s legendary Live Aid performance, and it could be released soon.

“We did the entire concert together,” Malek said of the performance. “That’s when we felt at our best. You need to go from one song to the next to have that same adrenaline rush that they had. We had an audience of Queen fans out there recreating that iconic concert and it’s an adrenaline rush like you could never imagine.”

Gwilym Lee, who plays guitarist Brian May in the film, has also discussed the sacking of original director Bryan Singer. The actor revealed Singer’s departure didn’t cause any uncertainty on set because the cast and crew “always knew the film was going to get finished.”