GUILLERMO DEL TORO - HELLBOY II SMASHES WAY TO TOP OF UK BOX OFFICE CHART

HELLBOY II SMASHES WAY TO TOP OF UK BOX OFFICE CHART

Hellboy II: The Golden Army has claimed the number one spot in the UK and Ireland after its opening weekend on release.

The comic book sequel took almost £3 million after opening on Wednesday August 20th to debut at the top of the charts.

Pan's Labyrinth's Guillermo del Toro - set to helm the two films based on The Hobbit - returns in the director's chair while Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones and Jeffrey Tambor all reprise their roles from the 2004 original.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army sees Big Red battling against an evil elven prince (Luke Goss) who wishes to harness the power of the titular army to rule the Earth.

Get Smart, a 21st century reboot of the 60s comedy series, debuted at number three while last week's number one, The Dark Knight, fell to fourth.

The top ten films in the UK are: (last week's position)

1 Hellboy II: The Golden Army - £2,969,602 (-)
2 Mamma Mia! - £1,837,577 (3)
3 Get Smart - £1,542,005 (-)
4 The Dark Knight - £1,454,847 (1)
5 You Don't Mess With the Zohan - £781,953 (3)
6 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - £641,421 (4)
7 Wild Child - £585,881 (5)
8 WALL-E - £459,574 (7)
9 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - £347,981 (6)
10 Space Chimps - £135,547 (8)