Are rock musicals hip after Bohemian Rhapsody?
Does Oscar success for Bohemian Rhapsody and the upcoming Rocketman mean we’ll be getting more musicals?
“Is this the real life/is this just fantasy?” Bohemian Rhapsody had a good night at the Oscars, winning four of the five Oscars it was nominated for. Rami Malek can now add “Academy Award Winner” to his resume.
Rhapsody has made more than $860,000,000 worldwide so far, which is superhero movie money. This May, Paramount will try to get in on some of that action with a movie about Elton John, another larger-than-life figure of Dad Rock.
These movies, released within a year of each other, made me wonder: Are we hitting a new trend of classic rock movies? Movies that are either biopics about musicians or build plots around the songs of one particular artist.
Think about it. Danny Boyle’s next movie is going to be about a young musician who finds himself in a world where nobody else knows the Beatles. Last year saw the release of a belated Mamma Mia sequel, the second time the Abba songbook was strung together by a thin plot. The 60’s and 70’s seem hip again.
Music collections can be IP
There might be a couple of reasons. First of all, current movie executives are obsessed with trying to make four-quadrant films, based on pre-existing IP. Putting it simply, they want films based around things people already know and like, that they can sell to as many different groups as possible. Superhero films are the most common example of this, although Star Wars films and James Bond films also count.
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Yet a movie like Bohemian Rhapsody counts as a more mature version of the same phenomenon. It’s based on something people already bought into (Queen’s music). It’s something that appeals to men and women from the era, people in their 30s whose tastes run vintage, and teens who want a film about a high profile gay icon. It was even rated PG-13, and very few films that want half a billion dollars plus are rated higher.
A second reason, which ties into the first, is nostalgia. Many of the comic book stories that are the basis for the Marvel and X-men universes were based on stuff published between 1960-91. They’re distant enough to be classic, but are still the basis for everything modern comic creators do with those characters today. Similarly, the songs of Queen and Elton John are far enough back in the past that they can invoke nostalgia, but close enough that many of the people who were there are still alive.
A third reason is that both Freddie Mercury and Elton John are successful gay artists. Their stories of music business rise and fall have the added complication of them discovering who they are in a world that wasn’t welcoming of that, and coming to terms with themselves.
Musicals have made a comeback
Ever since High School Musical and Glee, movie musicals, in general, have been more popular. Just this decade, we’ve had La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and the Pitch Perfect trilogy. Not to mention Mamma Mia 2 and you get the point.
Hollywood is happy to keep making the same kinds of films, as long as they keep making money. I say again, Bohemian Rhapsody made $861 million dollars. If I’m a movie executive, it’s a sign that I need to green light more musicals.
Making movies based on classic rock musicians isn’t a sure thing. There was a Jimi Hendrix biopic titled Jimi: All is by My Side that made less than a million dollars internationally. Rocketman will be a test case. If it’s also successful at a similar level to Rhapsody, expect movies based on the life and music of David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and similar figures.
So what are your favourite music films? Feel free to sound off in the comments below.