Poster © Columbia Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Fantasy
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 2 mins
ReleasedApril 2, 2004
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorGuillermo del Toro
StarringRon Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor
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Hellboy (2004)
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| Hellboy's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Fantasy |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 03/30/2004 (Mann Village Theater); 04/02/2004 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 2 mins |
| Budget | $60–66M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Hellboy by Mike Mignola |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Hellboy's Interests | |
| General | Cats, Baby Ruth bars, filed-down horns, a stone right hand, secret government files. |
| Music | Marco Beltrami, with big brass for a big red guy. |
| Movies | Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), del Toro's round two. Pan's Labyrinth (2006). |
| Television | The X-Files. Government agents, paranormal cases, files nobody should read. |
| Heroes | Abe Sapien. Reads several books at once, likes his eggs rotten. |
| Hellboy's Crew | |
| Director | Guillermo del Toro |
| Writers | Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Toro (story), Peter Briggs (story) |
| Producers | Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson, Lloyd Levin |
| Cinematography | Guillermo Navarro |
| Music | Marco Beltrami |
| Edited By | Peter Amundson |
| Production | Revolution Studios, Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Productions, Dark Horse Entertainment |
| Distributed By | Columbia Pictures (through Sony Pictures Releasing) |
John Myers is the new FBI agent assigned to babysit Hellboy, and the movie keeps treating his wide-eyed reactions like the main event. They aren’t. The main event is Ron Perlman under red makeup and a giant stone fist, playing a monster who loves cats, files down his horns and sulks like a jealous teenager over his crush. Perlman makes the gruff jokes and the sad eyes come from the same guy. Guillermo del Toro stuffs every corner with gears, tentacles and dusty old books. Abe Sapien, a gentle fish-man who reads several books at once, is a delight. John Hurt gives the movie its warmth as the professor who raised him. The villains are weaker. Rasputin mostly makes speeches, and the slimy creature fights start to repeat. It made $99.4 million worldwide on a reported budget of $60M to $66M. A 7.0 because the hero is pure gold and the plot around him is cardboard. $98.72 says you see a stray cat this week and start doing the math on how many is too many.
What works: Ron Perlman is perfect as Hellboy, and del Toro’s creature design and old-world gadgets make every frame fun to look at.
What doesn’t: Agent Myers is a dull stand-in for the audience, and the villains and creature fights get repetitive.
Who it’s for: Fans of monster movies with a soft heart, and anyone who ever rooted for the weird kid.
Spoilers
Professor Broom is killed partway through, which crushes Hellboy. Rasputin tries to make Hellboy open the door for ancient monsters, and he nearly does it before Myers reminds him he gets to choose who he is. He snaps off his own horns, beats the giant beast and saves Liz, and the two kiss surrounded by her flames.
In 1944, a group of Nazi occultists working with the mystic Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden) try to open a doorway to another dimension. Allied soldiers break it up, and the young Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt) finds what came through: a baby demon with a giant stone right hand. He raises him. Sixty years later, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is a wisecracking monster hunter for a secret government bureau, still sweet on firestarter Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and new FBI agent John Myers (Rupert Evans) is assigned to keep him in line. Then old enemies resurface. Guillermo del Toro directs. One hundred twenty-two minutes, plenty of cats.
Anyone who likes cats, candy bars and big fights. Hellboy will hold the door.
| Ron Perlman | Hellboy |
| Selma Blair | Liz Sherman |
| Jeffrey Tambor | Tom Manning |
| Karel Roden | Grigori Rasputin |
| Rupert Evans | John Myers |
| Brian Steele | Sammael |
| Doug Jones | Abe Sapien |
| John Hurt | Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $99.4M; Domestic box office $59.6M; Opening weekend $23.2M; Profit / loss (est.) -$44.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 81%; CinemaScore B−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 81% (205 reviews); Metacritic 72 / 100; CinemaScore B−; IMDb users 6.9 / 10 (373,867 votes); movie.guru score 6.0.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.