LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 23: (L-R) Ben Hardy, Roger Taylor, Rami Malek, Brian May, Gwilym Lee and Joe Mazzello attend the World Premiere of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at the SSE Arena Wembley in London. October 23, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Decades after their last studio album, Queen is the unlikely champions of the box office and music charts.

The rock band hasn't dropped a music project in nearly 30 years, but thanks to the performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody," their music has been given a new lease on life. After just a few weeks, the biographical film about the band and its late frontman, Freddie Mercury, has made $130 million domestically since its November 2 release, according to Box Office Mojo.



That may not seem like much in the era of movies that churn out $1 billion in receipts, but biographical movies about musicians have never been major box office draws. The 2015 biopic "Straight Outta Compton" is the highest-grossing of all time at $161 million, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" is rapidly gaining on it.



The movie has defied the odds on other fronts as well. Director Bryan Singer was fired from the movie due to "unexplained absences from the set," according to the Hollywood Reporter. It also received a reception from critics that were mixed at best.

Yet none of those potential stumbling blocks made any difference, with audiences appearing to flock to "Bohemian Rhapsody" anyway. Queen's music has experienced a renaissance on the charts as a result.



On Spotify, the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" went from 87th place globally one day before the movie's release to 15th place one week later. It also returned to the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a third time, after doing so once upon its initial release, and again after appearing in the 1992 movie "Wayne's World."

The movie soundtrack charted at number three, the group's highest placement since 1980, and their greatest hits package re-entered the charts at number nine. The movement gave Queen two top ten albums simultaneously, for the first time in the band's history.