Bohemian Rhapsody, the critically-acclaimed Queen biopic detailing the life of the band’s late frontman Freddie Mercury, has made nearly $1 billion dollars at the box office.
However, Queen guitarist Brian May has now claimed that the band hasn’t earned any money from the film.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which stars Rami Malek as Mercury, has won numerous awards including four Oscars and two Golden Globes.
It is also the highest-grossing music biopic in history – speaking that success to BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, May said: “It was a long labour of love – about 12 years in development, I guess.
“We thought it would do well in the end and we felt good about it, but we didn’t realise it would do that well. It’s incredible around the world – it’s like a billion-dollar movie.”
May went on to explain that that financial success did not extend itself to the living Queen members: “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. We had an accountant in the other day and we still haven’t earned a penny from it.
“Isn’t that funny? How successful does a movie have to be before you make money? There’s so many people that people don’t realise will take pieces off the top.”
Photo via Kevin Kane/Getty
