SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR

This belated sequel had financing arranged by the Russian based Aldamisa for $65 million and capital came from Demarest Films, Kilburn Media and Solipist Films.  Aldamisa also handled international sales to distributors.  Co-director Robert Rodriguez ended up suing Aldamisa for nonpayment of $7.7 million on both Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and his 2013 flop Machete Kills, but dropped his lawsuit in 2015 when Aldamisa threatened to countersue for $50 million.  When Robert Rodriguez finalized his funding, it was to secure enough cash only through production, which doesn’t work very well when the entire movie is filmed in front of a green screen and the footage shot sat on the shelf for a year, until VFX company Prime Focus got involved with this mess.  They agreed to do the vfx for free, in return for equity in the film’s backend and also invested $12.5 million into the film.  This is the kind of deal that helped further push vfx companies Digital Domain and Rhythm & Hues into bankruptcy.  Taking on the effects work of Sin City 2 took most of Prime Focus’ internal resources and severely limited their ability to do other paid work.  In a deal that ultimately cost them tens of millions of dollars, Prime Focus felt the fallout of this box office dud in the most damaging way.

The Weinstein Company took on domestic distribution at no cost and only had exposure to the P&A spend.  Sin City: A Dame To Kill For was dated for the end of summer August 22 frame and bowed against If I Stay and When the Game Stands Tall.  The sequel was tracking for an opening between $16 – $19 million and in a last minute effort to attract the core fanbase, they attached a teaser trailer for the upcoming Tarantino film Hateful 8.  Reviews were poor and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For was dead on arrival with $6,317,683 — placing #8 for the weekend led by Guardians of the Galaxy in its 4th frame.  Sin City 2 proved to be front loaded, even after the dismal opening and collapsed 64.8% in its second frame to $2,223,742.  It then sank 68.9% to $691,410 in its third session and promptly lost most of its theater count.  The domestic run closed with only $13,757,804.  The Weinstein Company would see returned about $7.5 million after theaters take their percentage of the gross, which leaves most of the P&A costs in the red.  With the home video market in decline, sales were terrible with $5.9 million, (less after manufacturing costs and resellers take their cut) before falling off the charts and its numbers no longer reported.

The first Sin City took in $84.6 million overseas and audience interest waned in the 9 years between the films and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For stalled with a $25.6 million offshore cume across numerous distributors.