Universal's “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” directed by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, grossed $13.8 million from 3,204 runs on Friday. The picture benefited from an aggressive marketing campaign.
Critically acclaimed, Golden Army should win the weekend and open north of $30 million, outpaced the $8.6 million earned by del Toros 2004 Hellboy on its first Friday.
Eddie Murphys family comedy Meet Dave grossed only $1.7 million from 3,011 runs for New Regency and Fox. Its the worst debut for a Murphy pic since “dventures of Pluto Nash, which grossed $727,870 on its opening day in 2002.
The third new wide release, New Line and Walden Medias family action dventure Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D did $6.7 million from 2,390 screens, of which 854 are digital 3-D screens. Journey, released by Warner Bros.,placed No. 3 for the day behind Hellboy and Sony holdover Hancock.
Will Smith's action-comedy “Hancock” declined only 44 percent in its second Friday, grossing $10.4 million from 3,965 runs for a cume of $142.4 million.
Disney-Pixars Wall-E continued to play well, grossing $5.6 million on Friday for a cume of nearly $150 million, or $149.9 million.
