‘Sin City 2’ Distributor: ‘It’s Like The Ice Bucket Challenge Without The Good Cause’

Nine years after the release of the first Sin City, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller gave fans the sequel that has been discussed for many years. However, not many people went to see Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (also known as Sin City 2), and that surprised its distributor, The Weinstein Company.

According to a report from Variety, Erik Lomis, the studio’s president of theatrical distribution, said they didn’t expect Sin City 2 to receive “this level of rejection by the public.”

“We thought the film would resonate more,” Lomis added. “It’s like the ice bucket challenge without the good cause.”

While Sin City 2 tanked, another comic book film took the number one spot. In a related report from The Inquisitr, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which originally had the spot at the beginning of the month, beat out two-week champion Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with $17.6 million. Meanwhile, Ninja Turtles slipped to number two with $16.8 million.

Sin City 2 didn’t even crack the top five at the box office over the weekend. The film opened in the number eight slot with $6.4 million. Other new releases that opened with it included the football drama When the Game Stands Tall and the Chloe Grace Moretz feature If I Stay. Those films opened respectively at number five with $9 million and number three with $16.8 million.

It’s not just its distributor that thought the film would have a better opening weekend. Many Twitter users posted that they were also surprised.

WOW. I genuinely did not expect Sin City 2 to bomb like that! Film noir needs a comeback.

— Chris Stuckmann (@Chris_Stuckmann) August 24, 2014

The box office for Sin City 2 is truly atrocious. It’s kinda shocking. There’s enough A-list in there to guarantee a $10m opening, at least.

— Adam Lowes (@adlow76) August 24, 2014

Looks like Sin City 2 is a major fail at the box office. That was somewhat unexpected.

— Chris (@CrankyTRex) August 24, 2014

Of the new releases, Sin City 2 was the better received from critics, but not by much. On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, 43 percent of critics gave the film a positive review. If I Stay scored a 41 percent, and When the Game Stands Tall received an 18 percent score.

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper gave the film three and a half stars, and he mentions that there have been talks for a third Sin City film.

“Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait nine years again,” Roeper writes.

Meanwhile, Peter Travers at Rolling Stone gave it two stars, saying it “doesn’t explode onscreen the way the first one did.”

“Miller’s monochrome palette, splashed with color that shines like a whore’s lip gloss, doesn’t startle as it once did,” Travers writes.

Did you see Sin City 2? Are you surprised by its box office failure?

[Image credit: Miramax Films via ComicBookMovie.com]