Director Francis Ford Coppola poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Megalopolis' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2024. Photo: AP
The major studios wouldn't touch Megalopolis, the ambitious passion project from octogenarian Oscar-winner Francis Ford Coppola. Now it's clear why.
The US$120-mil film, which Coppola financed with his own money, is on track to open with a disastrous US$4mil in ticket sales this weekend from the US and Canada, according to industry estimates, making it a epic flop for the legendary director known for the Godfather trilogy.
The 2 hour, 18 min. epic, a sort of retelling of Roman history through a satirical science fiction lens, has been an obsession of Coppola's for decades. He shouldered the financial risk himself, taking on the production budget plus marketing and distribution costs, selling off part of his wine business to make it happen.
Coppola, 85, had proven doubters wrong before, pouring millions into the tumultuous production of Apocalypse Now, which ended up nominated for the best picture Oscar and grossing more than US$100mil worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
Megalopolis premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to a long standing ovation but mixed reviews, with some praising the scope and ambition and others calling it a jumbled mess. The Times' Joshua Rothkopf compared its story to Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire Of The Vanities, "a funhouse image of a clashing New York City riven by money, power and race."
The movie features a stacked cast, starring Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne.
But moviegoers who saw Megalopolis rejected it, giving is a devastating "D+" rating from audience polling firm CinemaScore.
Lionsgate is distributing the movie for a fee, but is not carrying any of the financial risk (that's all on Coppola). Still, the Santa Monica studio suffered a headache from the promotional campaign when it released a trailer that included fake quotes from real critics doubting some of Coppola's classic past pictures. Lionsgate apologised and pulled the trailer.
Apart from Megalopolis, Lionsgate has fielded a number of bombs this year, including Borderlands and The Crow. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
