The North American promotion and distribution of "Sin City" was fully handled by Miramax, and since the investment in production costs alone reached 40 million US dollars, the overseas distribution rights were taken away by Miramax's previous company, Walt Disney, and Disney's label specializing in non-children's films, Bowell International, was responsible for overseas distribution.

Like the normal promotion of all films, Miramax has been methodically promoting according to the plan since the film was established, such as posters, trailers, outdoor advertisements and Internet advertisements have been played out early, Frank Miller has also participated in several media interviews, full of praise for Murphy's shooting and post-production, and bluntly said that the film is almost 100% reproduced in the comics, which will definitely be a milestone in the history of comic films.

With the approval of the original author, comic fans will undoubtedly look forward to the film more, and comic fans are the most basic audience of the film.

Of course, Miramax will not ignore the ordinary passerby audience, whether it is Murphy or Harvey Weinstein, who know very well that relying on comic book fans alone will not be able to support the expected $60 million to $80 million North American box office.

For example, Miramax released a 30-second short video about Jessica Alba, the content of the short film is a striptease in a bar, although there is no dew point shot, but the short film still attracted a lot of attention as soon as it appeared on TV and the Internet.

And Miramax also used this as a topic to create a series of chain news to promote "Sin City".

Recently, many online and Internet media have also hyped up related news, and news about Jessica Alba can be seen everywhere, and at Murphy's suggestion, Miramax did use her as a propaganda point.

"Looking back at the striptease careers of Hollywood actresses......"

Some influential film and television websites and forums have also appeared on such posts.

The post first reviewed a series of striptease performances by well-known actresses such as Demi Moore, Elizabeth Berkeley, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, and Salma Hayek in the film, and then highlighted this striptease video of Jessica Alba.

"In the upcoming "Sin City", Jessica Alba played the role of the innocent and sexy stripper Nancy, a bar pole dancing video danced amazingly, many people who have watched the video say that Jessica Alba interprets sexy, charm and passion with a new style and her body, if you have to find fault, it is that this dancer in a denim dress is a little more, maybe the film can let us see more wonderful content......"

These have brought topicality to the film, and it has also successfully attracted the attention of many men, and "Sin City" was originally a film for men, and from the very beginning of the project, I never thought that it could attract a large number of female audiences.

In addition to Jessica Alba, Robert Downey Jr., who gradually recovered in popularity after "Horror Planet", and James Franco, who is becoming more and more famous, are also important publicity points, and the two have also been interviewed by the media.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, James Franco said, "At the beginning, Murphy said that he needed someone to help him gain Frank Miller's trust, I had never seen the Sin City comic book before, and when I opened the book, I realized how cool the world of Sin City was, and I knew that this was exactly what Murphy was good at. The men are big and murderous, and the women are dressed in leather jackets and carry leather whips, all like old-fashioned noir stories that have reached a new extreme, and there are no works like it on the big screen. ”

In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Robert Downey Jr. focused on the film's green screen shooting, "When I first started acting in front of a green screen, it was a strange feeling, because everything was up to your own imagination, and I had to take my mind off the green screen and be fully engaged in the world of the film, so that the filming was fun, very special, very fresh." I think Murphy is a wizard because he found a way to turn painting into special effects, and he turned water into wine. ”

Now is no longer the era when you could win by word-of-mouth alone, and the characteristics of this era determine that if a film wants to be truly successful, it must do everything possible to promote and publicize, and one of the most powerful weapons for promotion and publicity is to create topics.

Miramax's publicity and public relations department will not let go of any potential topics, especially things like Murphy's withdrawal from the directors' union that can attract the attention of many people.

In the hype, Murphy is definitely a very, very selfless person, a director who can sacrifice personal interests for the sake of the film.

"Premiere" magazine relayed a Harvey Weinstein description of Murphy's reasons for quitting the Directors Guild.

After acquiring the rights to the film adaptation of Sin City, Murphy still wanted Frank Miller to play a role in the filming. He told me at the time that Frank Miller's involvement in the filming would play an important role in staying true to the original book, and that I didn't want Frank to be the author or producer of the comics, but to have Frank appear as a director, so that Frank would be credible and that the cast and crew would follow his direction. The decision, while sounding simple, required Murphy's sacrifice, as the Directors Guild of America treaty stipulated that each film could only be directed by one director, and Murphy had to quit the Directors Guild of America in order for Frank Miller to co-direct with him. ”

After the media hype, this incident, which no one originally paid attention to, immediately became boiling, and even had a certain impact among fans, and many people who didn't pay attention to Murphy and "Sin City" also began to pay attention to such a director and his works who could quit the director's union for the film.

In order to increase the topic and continue to expand the popularity of the film, Murphy also accepted an interview with "Premiere" after finishing all the post-production work, and specifically talked about this hot topic.

"Quitting the Directors Guild of America was a decision they had to make because they didn't want me to work with new directors, which didn't fit their rulebook. During the filming, representatives of the directors' union approached us and asked us to stop work for investigation, and I would not let anything stop us. ”

In the face of reporters, Murphy certainly wants to put himself on the innocent side and at the same time attract attention, "In my mind, Mr. Frank Miller is not a rookie director, if you look at his comic works, you will find that they are just as successful as the big screen, the plot, the graphics, the action, the editing and the direction are excellent, except that instead of the camera, the actors and the lighting, Frank uses paper and pen. ”

When it was time to tout, Murphy never skimped on his praise, "Like the movie, the comic is telling the story with pictures, and the director's guild is firmly against it, so I had to quit in order to make this film." Sometimes, when you're going to try something different, you have to break some rules. ”

These are all for the needs of publicity and hype, and the images seen in the media are sometimes the images that public relations and propaganda want people to see.

Everything that is not good for the promotion of the film will be covered up as much as possible, and almost everyone involved in the production of a film wants it to be a big success, and Frank Miller is no exception.

He also gave an interview in response to the news hype about Murphy's withdrawal from the directors' union.

Of course, Frank Miller is also an old fritter, and he also said praise, "Murphy shocked me throughout the filming of the film, of all the comic book adaptations, Murphy's "Sin City" is the best transformation of the original book, especially the black and white and fast, jumping cuts, it is simply superb, Murphy achieved this effect in a completely new way, I am sure comic book fans and movie fans will be deeply surprised by the extraordinary nature of "Sin City", there is no fabricated realism here, It's more like a pure and fanatical dream. ”

With Frank Miller's response, Miramax is even more at home with the operation of this news spot.

This publicity is not only aimed at the upcoming theatrical screenings, but also the DVD and videotape market after the theatrical chains.

For a film with a scale like this, the DVD market may see explosive revenue figures.

Murphy's first two films also proved this, whether it was "Chainsaw" or "Terror Planet", both of which once made it into the top three monthly DVD rental charts in North America, with sales and rentals generating nearly $10 million in revenue, and that revenue figure has continued to increase over time.

Especially "Terror Planet", the North American box office of this film is far inferior to "Chainsaw", but it is very popular in the rental market, and in just half a year, the income from leasing alone has exceeded the million dollar mark.

These can not only bring Murphy a certain amount of dividends, but also become the capital to lay a solid foundation for him, and it is with these that Miramax did not hesitate to give "Sin City" a total of $15 million in North American promotional and marketing expenses.

Everyone knows that publicity needs money, not to mention Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., who are far from reaching the front line, and they need to use funds to impress the media to build momentum, even if it is a superstar film like Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio, it is necessary to invest a huge amount of publicity money after entering the publicity period.

If you want to use one person to drive a film to a super hit, it was possible in the past, but it is difficult to do it in this era, even James Cameron can't do it, the film that will set records in the future relies not only on his golden signboard, but also on publicity and marketing expenses that exceed the production cost.

After the interview with "Premiere", Murphy's work came to an end for the time being, and he was able to find time to continue his offensive on the other side. (To be continued.) )