Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody movie is no longer the biggest biopic of all time, thanks to the global box office success of Oppenheimer

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios, Universal Pictures)

Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biographical film about Queen and their late frontman Freddie Mercury, is no longer the most successful biopic of all time.

Having earned a whopping $910.8 million (£710m) at the worldwide box office, the history-making film has been now booted from the top spot by Oppenheimer, which has netted over $912.7 (£712.4m) million since its cinematic release in mid July.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer revisits the life of J Robert Oppenheimer (played by Christopher Nolan), an American theoretical physicist during World War II known as the "father of the atomic bomb".

Back in early August, the film became the highest-grossing WWII film of all time, after surpassing $550m (£433.4m) at the global office.

Its monumental success can also be partly attributed to the popular "Barbieheimer" trend, an internet phenomenon which led to countless memes inspired by Oppenheimer's shared release day with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. As part of the trend, cinema-goers would book in to watch both films, often straight after the other.

While it may have now been dethroned from its number one ranking, Bohemian Rhapsody saw great results at award ceremonies following its release, with its star Rami Malek, who played Freddie Mercury, landing the Oscar for Best Actor. As well as bagging three more Oscars, it also won the Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing in 2019.

Earlier this year, Queen guitarist Brian May revealed that he had been in conversation with the makers behind the 2018 film about the possibility of a sequel, admitting that the idea of creating a follow-up would be "so tempting".

While May had ruled out the idea in previous discussions, in a newer interview the the Daily Star, he said: "We’ve been talking about it. I felt proud of it and the people who played us were just phenomenal. It’s so tempting to do the sequel – it would be worth it just to work with those boys again. Bohemian Rhapsody climaxed in Live Aid and I suppose implicitly Freddie starting to deal with his AIDS, but an awful lot happened between the end of the film to the end of the glory days of Queen.”

Watch the trailer for Oppenheimer below:

Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.