Hellboy was an under-seen treat when it hit theaters in 2004 but was a huge success when it hit DVD. It barely made back its production budget with its worldwide box office added in but became a huge hit on home video. Hellboy II cost more and made more at the box office, actually becoming a slight success, although American audiences still largely ignored it.
While its very vocal fan base wants a sequel, there isn’t enough money there to really warrant it. It is for that reason that Del Toro said in a Reddit AMA that the third movie that he wants to make likely won’t happen.
“Sadly now from a business point of view all the studios know is that you don’t have that safety net of the DVD and video, so they view the project as dangerous,” Del Toro said. It looks like the era of digital downloads and piracy might be killing the ability of fans to get some of the movies they want made. People are buying fewer DVDs, so we are now being punished for it by studios, who are making less money.
Want to be even more depressed about not getting Hellboy 3? Check out what it would have been about:
“The idea for it was to have Hellboy finally come to terms with the fact that his destiny, his inevitable destiny, is to become the beast of the Apocalypse, and having him and Liz face the sort of, that part of his nature, and he has to do it, in order to be able to ironically vanquish the foe that he has to face in the 3rd film,” Del Toro wrote. “He has to become the beast of the Apocalypse to be able to defend humanity, but at the same time he becomes a much darker being. It’s a very interesting ending to the series, but I don’t think it will happen.”
Guillermo Del Toro said that, if he was a multimillionaire, he would finance the movie himself. However, he said he spends all his money on rubber monsters and the studio won’t finance it. Let’s all mourn in the comment section below.
