Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller released Sin City in 2005, a neo-noir film based on Frank Miller’s comic series of the same name. The film featured many talented actors, including Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis, and Elijah Wood. As a result of its success, a sequel was released, named Sin City: A Dame to Kill.
However, unlike the original, this film did not have the same impact. Grossing $39.4 million against a budget of $65 million, Sin City 2 was effectively considered a flop. Unfortunately, the film’s abject failure resulted in the cancelation of a planned Sin City 3. Even though Miller, Rodriguez, and many of the cast and crew were excited to return for a threequel, it ultimately never happened. Here’s why.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill Underperformed
TWC
After the success of Sin City, creators were quick to want to capitalize on the success of the initial film and almost immediately commissioned the sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill. The film was released in 2014 and was directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. The film follows a succession of short stories featuring different artists, following characters including Marv (Mickey Rourke), who struggles to remember an altercation with frat boys. Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) puts his own struggles aside to help Ava Lord (Eva Green), a woman who consumes his life. We also meet Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba), mad with grief and rage over Hartigan’s death, vowing revenge. The film was set up to follow the success of its predecessor.
Unfortunately, the film’s performance underwhelmed and did not match up to either the critical or commercial success of the first movie. Sin City 2 did not perform as expected at the box office, too, and it received lackluster critical reviews, which were far less impressive than those of Sin City. The unexpected poor performance of the sequel meant that plans for a third installmen,t which were already in discussion prior to A Dame to Kill’s release, were quickly shelved.
Buzz for the Franchise Died Down
Miramax
After the poor performance of Sin City: A Dame to Kill, it’s no wonder that buzz for the franchise in general began to die down, and we saw less news articles and press releases relating to the future of the franchise. The story could have been continued, especially for die-hard fans. Indeed, the source material from Miller still had more to offer, but the direction of the second film just did not seem to land with critics and general audiences. Miller had some more unused source material in Family Values and Booze, Broads and Bullets, which followed similar neo-noir themes to the additions that came before them. The material could have made for an interesting addition, but the hype simply was not there.
To understand how the hype died down, we need to look at some of the issues that were presented by the release of Sin City: A Dame to Kill. One of the fundamental issues was obviously a lack of audience for the film, as the release massively underperformed to what was predicted at the box office. The studio tried hard to promote the film and enlisted some huge names, such as Alba and Brolin, and utilized cameos from figures such as Eva Green and Lady Gaga to gain publicity and entice audiences to see the film. That said, studio seemed to have lost a lot of its core audiences, and relied on them just showing up to watch. Naturally, when this didn’t happen, the film effectively circled the drain. The lack of noise meant that hope a Sin City 3 was lost.
Would a TV Series Work Better Now?
Since the Sin City franchise was clearly not working well on the big screen, fans and studios began to theorize about the possibility of the franchise returning to screens in the form of a TV series instead, where the story could be more fleshed out through a longer format. Miller’s stories intertwine characters that cross-cross, with layers of complexity that would maybe do better through the temporal real estate inherently afforded by TV, where the story can become more nuanced. In a TV series, the streets of Basin City could come to life in a much more complex way.
It was reported that networks have expressed an interest in a Sin City TV series, per Looper, which is not surprising since we have seen an uprising in the popularity of series on streaming platforms that have been adapted from comic stories. As Digital Trends notes, every streaming platform is currently filled with many popular titles that have been adapted from pages of a similar format to Miller’s comics. It’s likely that this would indeed be a better platform to showcase a continuation of the Sin City franchise, and, of course, we are hoping for an official announcement in the future.
