HELLBOY (2019): Paranormal Action Flick to Premiere In China

Hellboy to Premiere in China

The 2019 reboot of Hellboy will premiere in Chinese cinemas on Monday, November 9th, over a year and a half after its debut in the United States.

Hellboy was one of the biggest box office disappointments of 2019, taking in just $22 million domestic and $44.7 million international, despite having a $50 million production budget.

Although Chinese interest in the film appears minimal, even a modest box office in China could pull the film out of the red. Only 24,000 Chinese consumers polled had indicated they “want to see” the film on the online ticketing service Maoyan as of Thursday. Compare this to the 123,000 people who are looking forward to seeing the upcoming Chinese war film The Sacrifice.

Directed by Neil Marshall, the paranormal superhero film stars David Harbour as the titular hero, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim. Outside of China, it was distributed by Lionsgate and produced by Millennium Films, Summit Entertainment, Campbell Grobman Films, Dark Horse Entertainment and Lawrence Gordon Productions. Hellboy was sold to the Chinese distributor JL Vision Film by the American production company Millennium Media back in February 2019.

The Chinese government censorship agencies will take their time to remove or alter any content they deem not in line with the regime’s interests, which can be a slow and unpredictable process. Also the way that movies that have been pirated and viewed for quite a long time now can still be used when convenient to fill scheduling gaps at times when local content is lacking.

The loss of Guillermo del Toro, who directed the first two Hellboy films in 2004 and 2008, was bemoaned by critics, who gave it one of the worst Rotten Tomatoes scores of the year for a wide-release film at a measly 18%. Owen Gleiberman — chief film critic at Variety — deemed it “a pile of origin-story gobbledygook, frenetic and undercooked, full of limb-hacking, eye-gouging monster battles as well as an atmosphere of apocalyptic grunge that signifies next to nothing.”

Its April 12th, 2019 release date in the United States was also unfortunately stuck between the releases of Shazam! and Avengers: Endgame, which meant that it faced fierce competition from two other blockbuster superhero films, especially that of Endgame, which is the highest grossing film of all time.

Fortunately for its Chinese distributors, Hellboy is set to face minimal box office competition. Its biggest competitor appears to be re-releases like the Sacrifice and Japan’s Digimon Adventure: The Last Evolution Kizuna, which is set to debut on October 30th. The only potential competition from new releases will be the local crime thriller Back to the Wharf, which premieres November 6th.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was released in China in 2008 and took $2.67 million in box office revenue at a time when the Chinese film market was much smaller than it is now. As of October 2020, it has surpassed North America as the world’s biggest market as a result of America’s protracted viral outbreak.

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