Hellboy is here, and it's a total disaster.
There are a lot of factors behind the failure of the superhero movie reboot.
Let's break down why it bombed at the box office and see if we can nail down just what
exactly went so wrong with Hellboy 2019.
The critics have spoken, and they weren't pleased.
But most damning for the Hellboy franchise's future prospects is the fact that this version
of Big Red didn't make any money at all.
According to Box Office Mojo, the opening weekend for Hellboy brought in considerably
less than even studio Lionsgate's lowest expectations.
While the studio hoped for at least a $17 million take to start things off for the movie's
theatrical run, Hellboy instead brought back only $12 million from more than 3,300 theaters,
earning a third place at the domestic box office during its debut.
All that against a budget that's been reported to be at least $50 million.
In other words, it looks like everyone who backed this project is about to lose their
money.
"Oh yeah?"
Clearly, the world wasn't on fire with anticipation for a new, rebooted Hellboy movie.
But not many predicted it would turn out this bad.
As reviews rolled in over the movie's opening weekend, Hellboy's Rotten Tomatoes score hovered
near the single digits, eventually reaching a 15% rating with roughly 150 reviews.
Naturally, the reactions are full of punny alley-oops.
The movie is like a personal hell, or at least the tenth circle of one.
It's a hell of a headache and a hellish experience.
It both came from and can go to… you get it.
The point is, people hated this movie.
One of the more understated disses came from the Associated Press review, which read,
"So underwhelming was this film that a recent screening in New York only sparked polite
applause after it was finally over.
And that was the red carpet premiere with all the cast in attendance."
"Um, are you serious?"
One of the biggest problems the new Hellboy failed to overcome is many fans' continuing
allegiance to the original two movies directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Long before this new version of the franchise was being worked on, del Toro and original
Hellboy Ron Perlman were ready and willing to step up for a third act.
But over the course of the next decade, hopes for that reunion ever happening slowly faded,
with producers steering the property toward a reboot instead.
"What's my flaw?!"
What makes the reboot treatment really sting is less that it happened, and more that Perlman
and del Toro never stopped trying to make their version of a third movie a reality.
Perlman related to Collider in 2018,
"I spent a long, long time really poking and prodding the bear to get the third one made,
and I fell short."
The results of this gamble on a new direction were ugly and unprofitable, with the new Hellboy
grossing considerably less in its opening weekend than either of its predecessors.
The franchise's previous movie, 2009's The Golden Army, went on to a worldwide gross
of $160 million.
Good luck reaching those highs again after a stinker like this.
If passing over del Toro and Perlman was the Hellboy reboot's original sin, it didn't necessarily
damn the entire movie.
With a unified vision and a great team effort, things still could've turned out okay.
But apparently, not everyone making the movie was on the same team.
According to a scintillating write-up by TheWrap, the production of Hellboy 2019 was plagued
by infighting, disagreements, and even a controversial firing.
The specifics of the gossip are frequently delicious.
Allegedly, a producer of the movie frequently stepped on the director's toes, leaving the
actors with contradictory instructions regarding how to play scenes.
Also allegedly, star David Harbour was at multiple times frustrated enough to simply
walk off the set during shooting.
The report also claims that the script was being re-written during production, which
might help to explain the story's overall disjointed feel.
It's easy to see how an atmosphere like this could lead to the creation of a subpar movie.
But whatever the reasons behind it being lousy are, we're sure there are plenty of people
who might just want their money back.
Comic book series can exist for years or even decades before getting a shot on the big screen,
often spooling out whole encyclopedias' worth of confusing lore in the process.
As a result, it's extremely easy for adaptations to fall into the trap of becoming over-complicated
messes with too much story, too many characters, or simply too much weird crap going on for
a general audience to get on board with.
According to many reviews, Hellboy's biggest problem is how over-complicated and confusing
its plot developments can be, with important characters remaining strangely two-dimensional
while the movie wastes time with cameos and comic book references.
While parts of the movie that may delight readers of the comic books with satisfaction
of the "oh, I recognize that" variety, they might come off to casual fans as weird, momentum-killing
digressions.
Even people who know the comics might not be able to get around the movie's breathless
pace and stunning density.
In trying to include so much, the movie succeeds in conveying very little.
And it's a superhero movie!
All it needed to be was "good guys vs. bad guys."
How the heck do you go about screwing that up?
Out of the people who did see Hellboy, enough walked away agitated enough to saddle it with
an abysmal C rating at Cinemascore.
While a C may come off as average, it's actually quite lousy for a movie like this.
A Cinemascore rating reflects the results of theatrical exit polls, with regular people
leaving opening night screenings basically being asked if they liked what they saw and
got what they paid for.
Movies for general audiences tend to easily get As and Bs, while lower ratings are often
more reserved for horror movies, which tend to be unconventional by nature.
While Hellboy certainly has its horror elements, it's more aspiring to be the same kind of
beast as Deadpool, playing as a crowd-pleasing, four-quadrant blockbuster with some blood
and guts and naughty words.
That's what the movie sold itself as, but a C Cinemascore suggests that people did not
get what they wanted out of Hellboy.
Whether it was too gory, too confusing, or just too weird, it also suggests that people
won't be running to tell their friends to go see it either, meaning any hopes of the
movie picking up speed in the weeks after its debut are pretty low, especially with
the Avengers right around the corner.
At that point, it's curtains for ol' Hellboy.
In hindsight, they probably should've just let Guillermo finish his trilogy.
It couldn't have turned out much worse than this.
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