As I sit here and write this week’s Box Office Buzz, half a day late because my body still doesn’t understand the difference between “˜nap’ and “˜sleep’, I have less than three days until I will also be writing the review for The Dark Knight. So not surprisingly, this week’s box office winner didn’t run away with a massive haul.

Nevertheless, this week’s winner is not unexpected, with Guillermo del Toro‘s Hellboy II: The Golden Army taking first place over last week’s Hancock.

One almost has to wonder about any film trying to release itself a week prior to TDK, and whether Universal Pictures was really thinking straight. But, with a haul of nearly $36 million on its opening weekend, it still managed to come out well ahead of its predecessor’s opening weekend of $23 million.

Another new film which debuted this week, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, managing to take third place with a respectable $20.5 million take, behind Hancock, which earned in $33 million in it’s second week. All the way down at number 7 with only $5 million, is this week’s third debut, the Eddie Murphy comedy Meet Dave, which was never really going to trouble scorers this weekend.

But once again, one has to wonder at the wisdom of releasing a movie like Hellboy II, which had trouble at the box office its first time around, a week before TDK. I’m not sure if my logic of saving money in advance to see the movie you most want to see fares for the entire planet, but waiting 3 to 4 weeks might have been a better ploy if they wanted to capitalize on del Toro’s work.

As always, thanks again to Box Office Mojo for this weekends estimates.