Guillermo del Toro‘s “Hellboy” movies may be beloved by the geek crowd but financially, they’re not quite blockbuster worthy. The first film didn’t break $60 million domestically and “Hellboy 2” couldn’t break $80 million at home. Collectively, the two films have only grossed $259 million globally and that’s off $151 million total budgets which doesn’t include promotion and advertising stateside and around the world. You do the math. But today there was some brief hope. Del Toro, doing the “Pacific Rim” press rounds out of San Francisco, told ShockTilYouDrop that “Hellboy 3” could find a home at Legendary Pictures, the production company that bankrolled his lastest monster movie.
“I hate giving pieces about it, but last night, we were at dinner and Ron [Perlman] said, ‘I would be very happy to do Hellboy again, when are we doing Hellboy 3?’,” del Toro said. “Thomas [Tull] said, ‘I would love to see Hellboy 3.’ He didn’t say he would love to do it he just said he’d like to see it, but today, I’ll ask him.”
Admittedly, del Toro’s own words don’t mean much as it is, but today several outlets started rejoicing in early glee, translating the filmmakers thoughts into: “Hellboy 3” could find a home at Legendary. Mmmm, not so much. Tull poured water on that one really fast.
“Seeing how we don’t own the rights to ‘Hellboy,’ there may be lawyers that would get upset about that,” Tull told io9, making a sideways mention about Columbia/Sony who own the film property. “But you know, in Guillermo’s world, maybe he can make that go away. I don’t know. [Laughs]”
Real translation: Don’t hold your breath. Sure, Sony/Columbia could make another “Hellboy” film on their own but they haven’t and won’t because the films just weren’t profitable. And, sure, they could sell it to Legendary, but unless they’re giving it away in a fire sale, we don’t see Legendary biting anytime soon. Please disperse, nothing to see here? Pretty much.
It's not Sony/Columbia's property to "sell." And I think it's out of Universal's hands as well, hence, the chatter from Del Toro/Perlman about shopping part 3 around town within the last year.
"I hate giving pieces about it" .
Ahah! Del Toro is pulling Del Toros over Del Toros these days.
He sold a whole series worth of writing for The Strain, relaunched the Hellboy buzz, is already promoting Crimson Peak (totally new original stuff from me and my universe and I) and so on.
Well put. A Hellboy film is never happening again. A sequel was just throwing good money after bad as most major studios are wont to do to TRY and recoup their investment.