MovieChat Forums > Dark City (1998) Discussion > Was Dark City Unmarketable?

Was Dark City Unmarketable?

posted 10 years ago by amadaca
17 replies | jump to latest

Was watching Proyas on the DVD talking about the difficulties New Line had on deciding how to market this film, and it occurred to me that it WOULD be rather difficult. The film crosses several genre boundaries for one thing, but more troublesome is that, rather than being a film with simply a surprise or, 'twist' ending, Dark City has a false plot acting as a facade to the true one.To the best of my knowledge, there was only ever one trailer, and while its an awesome one if youve already seen the movie, I feel it gives away too much for those who havent.

This then begs the question, though --- if marketing the true plot gives away too much, are you missing your intended audience (sci-fi, fantasy & philosophy buffs) by advertising the false plot (a film noir murder mystery)?

How could this be resolved? How would YOU have sold this film to the public?

[–] Druff (1805) 2 years ago

If it was marketed in a way that lured in shitloads of people, I doubt it would have been a big hit. Yeah, a lot of people would have loved it like we did. But I'd bet a lot more would have left the theater shrugging or scratching their heads.