Hellboy 2, which us Brit’s will have to wait until late August for, has enjoyed a blistering opening weekend of around $35.9m, according to Box Office Mojo. This not only means that Guillermo del Toro’s big red sequel has already bettered it’s predecessor’s $23.1m release, but knocked the befuddled Will Smith vehicle Hancock into second place with a worthy $33m, which is still far more then it deserves.

Hellboy’s success is more impressive still for a film with, barring Seth McFarlane’s disembodied vocals, modest star pull. An ingenious marketing campaign and both del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth success and Hobbit hype probably didn’t do any harm, either.

Perhaps the film industry will now learn from Ron Perlman’s triumph and cast with suitability rather than marketability in mind… or churn out several dozen knock-offs featuring cat loving devils, piranha tooth fairies or giant CGI squids. It’s anyone’s guess.