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Let's see how many Devil and Hell puns we can come up with.

Kim Hollis: Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the latest summer comic book adaptation, opened to $34.5 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Max Braden: That's not a bad opening, but for a visually impressive mid July opener full of action I would have expected closer to $50 million

David Mumpower: I feel this is a solid result for the project. Hellboy opened to $23.2 million and inflation-adjusts to about $26.5 million. Clearly, it's outperformed the original by quite a bit in terms of ticket sales. The total also almost matches the entire domestic run of Pan's Labyrinth ($37.6 million). So, while this might be a middling result for a comic book movie, it has to be a success given the considerations above.

Kim Hollis: I'm pretty pleased with it, as I would say it performed precisely to expectations. No more, no less. I do think this one is a harder sell than some other properties that aren't as well known, particularly as the lead characters are so...strange. So, to increase over the first film by a significant amount has to be considered a huge win. They've grown the audience.

David Mumpower: Kim makes an excellent point. The comic book characters here are the strangest we've seen on screen since League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and they're among the oddest mainstream ones this side of Doom Patrol. Selling the idea of the devil's son being a good guy was something Adam Sandler couldn't do, so Ron Perlman's accomplishing this feat is impressive.





Sean Collier: Hellboy 1 didn't hit $60 Million. The star is a talented workhorse, but a non-draw. The source material is known by few. This summer is soaked with superheroes. A week in advance, the only words moviegoers can utter are "the," "dark," and "knight." The upshot? $35.9 Million is an excellent opening for Hellboy. A quiet hit was all that producers could hope for, and they've got it. Hellboy 2 is a big success story.

Brandon Scott: I'm surprised as hell. This shows the power of a cult film and character whose phenomenon grows through rentals and strong word-of-mouth. I still have no idea who Hellboy is, yet early talk is this film could see nine figures, though I'll go out on a limb and say the chances of a repeat first place finish are shorter than his horns.

Scott Lumley: I consider this a disturbing result. This is one wacked out and unique visualization of one of the more original characters in film history. The film is surreal, if disjointed, and I'm not entirely sure it's going to have legs as this character doesn't appeal to all groups and actually has a negative appeal with specific groups. This needed to do better. As it stands, if this doesn't show some serious legs this may be our last Hellboy film and that would be very much a shame.

Daron Aldridge: Its weekend number is a bit lower than I hoped for, based upon the Johnny-come-latelys that made the first one such a huge hit on DVD. I thought the rush would have been greater but it still could have decent legs if people were just waiting to make Dark Knight the next superhero movie they see. Despite the superhero angle, I think Batman and Hellboy can coexist and Hellboy won't be cannibalized.

Reagen Sulewski: It might be middling for some of the comic book movies we've seen in the past couple of years, but Hellboy is about the closest thing there is to an indie comic movie, especially given who's the creative force behind it. It's a fantastic result when viewed through that lens. Also David, don't forget that Ron Perlman isn't using the most annoying voice ever for his character.

Pete Kilmer: I think it's a terrific result for a comic book movie that doesn't have the name pedigree of a Marvel or DC Comics hero. It grew its audience from the first movie on DVD and they came out for the second Hellboy film.

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