Despite good reviews and unrelenting love from fans, the first two Hellboy films from Guillermo del Toro failed to strike gold at the box office, which has unfortunately kept a third film from gaining any traction. The first one earned $99 million on its $66 million budget, while Hellboy II: The Golden Army grossed a little more at $160 million, but cost a bit more too, landing in the $85 million range.
While those numbers don’t qualify the films as flops, they have unfortunately made studio heads quite cautious about giving the greenlight, despite del Toro and star Ron Perlman’s desire to round out their trilogy.
Of course, things have gone back and forth over the years. Last we heard, Thomas Tull was interested in seeing it happen at Legendary Pictures, despite Hellboy creator Mike Mignola’s belief that it would never see the light of day. However, those updates are about a year old now, and we really haven’t heard much more about the movie since.
During a recent interview though, Perlman spoke up about his continued love for the property and his never-ending struggle to see the film get made. Unlike most actors, Perlman seems legitimately interested in seeing Hellboy 3 happen, and says he actively fights for it “every day”:
“I’d like to finish it. I’d like for there to be a third film because the first two films were set up for this huge resolve and (Guillermo Del Toro) already understands what that resolve will look like. He never gave me the nuts and bolts of it, but he gave me a rather broad strokes sketch of what the third film would look like and it’s so epic and so deserved by the fans that hung in there for the first two that I really feel as though it’s essential that we make it. So I fight for it every day. Sometimes I’m the only voice and sometimes there are others, but I’m never going to stop trying to get Hellboy 3 made!”
Is Ron Perlman just the coolest, or what? Unfortunately, his own excitement doesn’t mean we’ll actually see the movie. Many of us were hoping that Pacific Rim would hit it out of the park, solidifying del Toro’s status as a big-budget filmmaker and giving the studio the guts to greenlight another Hellboy adventure. But, alas, that film is struggling to get its own sequel off the ground, which likely hasn’t gotten Thomas Tull all that interested in paying for Perlman’s red makeup and cigars.
Tell us, are you still holding out hope for Hellboy 3? Sound off in the comments below.
