Is the following sentence passive?
The business came to be viewed as unprofitable.
A truly passive sentence would be:
The business cycle was viewed as unprofitable.
I think this is very similar to your sentence.
An active sentence would be:
Economic analysts viewed the business cycle as unprofitable.
Because of its lack of theaters, the city came, ironically, to be viewed as an unprofitable theater town, and that reputation led entrepreneurs to believe that it would be risky to build new theaters there.
Now is the underlined part a true passive sentence?
As far as active/passive voice, I think your second sentence is identical to your first one. According the the writer of this webpage: people.rit.edu/japnce/payne/teac … voice.html your sentences are indeed true passive. He has a PhD, so I will bow to his authority. Here is the detail from his webpage:
Identifying Stative-Passive Constructions
In the exercises below, distinguish between true passive voice constructions and stative passive constructions. Then, check your answer with the answers below. Remember that a true passive construction indicates that an action is performed on the subject of the sentence; whereas a stative passive construction merely describes the state or condition of the subject.
Question: Are the following sentences true passive?
It came to be called the Hollerith Electric tabulating Machine.
Answer:
to be called [true passive]