Francis Ford Coppola made the movie he wanted to make with Megalopolis — but its astounding box office failure means it’ll probably be a lot tougher for Coppola to get his next one made. Megalopolis is the ambitious passion project that’s been rattling around Coppola’s head since the 1970s, and after half a century of iterating and pontificating, he has finally made the film a reality by going into his own pocket. Coppola self-funded Megalopolis’ whopping $120 million budget by selling off half a billion dollars’ worth of his winery business.
With Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and The Godfather trilogy all under his belt, Coppola’s pre-Megalopolis movies had made him one of the most legendary filmmakers in Hollywood. But now that Megalopolis has finally arrived in theaters and received extremely mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, there’s been some discussion about whether or not Coppola has lost his touch. Coppola isn’t planning to slow down any time soon, but the box office failure of Megalopolis could have massive ramifications for the future of his career.
Megalopolis’ Box Office Performance Proves Why Hollywood Was So Scared Of Francis Ford Coppola’s Epic
No Studio Would Touch Megalopolis For 50 Years — And Now, It’s Obvious Why
Coppola began developing Megalopolis around the time he finished Apocalypse Now in the late ‘70s, but he struggled to get the project off the ground for nearly 50 years. Every time he tried to put the movie together, he couldn’t find a studio that would back it. He needed a blockbuster budget to bring his ambitions to life, but the studios were concerned that it wouldn’t bring back blockbuster box office returns. When Coppola made the movie with his own money, realizing his vision with full creative control, he struggled to find a distributor to put it in cinemas.
And now that Megalopolis is in theaters, it’s obvious why the studios were so wary about the film’s commercial prospects. The humor is too bizarre to be crowd-pleasing, the endless philosophizing is too dull for casual moviegoers, and the film’s brazen approach to incest (in more than one of its subplots) doesn’t exactly have mainstream appeal. When Coppola screened the movie for distributors, all they saw was a sure-fire flop. Those studios’ concerns were validated when Megalopolis bombed at the box office on its opening weekend, bringing in just $4 million against a budget of 30 times that.
Megalopolis Will Make It Even More Difficult For Francis Ford Coppola To Make New Movies
Coppola Could Self-Finance More Projects, But He Won’t Have Much Support From Hollywood
It took Coppola almost 50 years to get the financing together to make Megalopolis. But now that the movie has arrived as the director’s grandest failure, it’ll be even harder for Coppola to get his projects off the ground. There was at least a sliver of hope that Megalopolis would be the next Godfather or Apocalypse Now, but Coppola’s next film will just be seen as the next Megalopolis. If studios were wary about giving Coppola a distribution deal before the failure of Megalopolis, they’ll be tightening the purse-strings even more after it made $4 million in its opening weekend.
The most expensive independent film ever made is 2017’s
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
, with a budget of around $209 million.
Of course, Coppola could self-finance more of his projects like he did with Megalopolis, but it’s a lot trickier to spend $120 million of one’s own money than that of a giant media corporation for whom $120 million is a rounding error. Coppola had the $120 million to spend on Megalopolis, but he doesn’t have an endless supply of millions. To get his next ambitious epic in the can, he might need to rely on funding from a major Hollywood studio — and those studios won’t be quick to give him a ton of money after Megalopolis’ underperformance.
It’s Still Great That Francis Ford Coppola Made Megalopolis
Coppola Is One Of The Only Filmmakers Left Who’s In It Purely For The Art
Although Megalopolis will go down as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, it’s still great for the cinematic artform that Coppola made this movie. After giving audiences some of the greatest films ever made — including four all-time classics in a row (The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, and Apocalypse Now) — Coppola has more than earned the right to make his passion project the way he wanted to make it. It might not have worked for everyone, but seeing one of cinema’s greatest contributors continue in this fashion is still worth celebrating on some level.
While critics and audiences can’t seem to agree on whether or not Megalopolis is a great film, its own director seems pretty pleased with it. Coppola gave his own movie a five-star review on Letterboxd, so he’s clearly happy with the final product. In a world where filmmakers are constantly left frustrated and unfulfilled when their vision is compromised by meddling investors and studio executives, it’s heartening to see a director who managed to get exactly what was in his mind onto the screen on such a large scale.
Francis Ford Coppola Does Not Plan To Retire After Megalopolis
Coppola Has Already Teased His Next Projects
In spite of Megalopolis’ box office disappointment, Coppola has shot down the possibility of retiring from filmmaking. Coppola has already teased two projects he wants to make as a follow-up to Megalopolis. He was vague on the details of one of those movies — describing it simply as “a regular sort of movie” he’d want to shoot in England with outside financing — but he was a bit more specific on the other one: Distant Vision. Distant Vision would chronicle “three generations of an Italian American family,” with the story revolving around the invention of television.
Coppola said he’ll finance the production of
Distant Vision
with “
whatever Megalopolis does.
” But based on its opening weekend numbers, it seems unlikely that
Megalopolis
will bring back enough money to finance another movie of its size.
Coppola has described Distant Vision as “another roll of the dice,” similar to Megalopolis, a comparison that will surely make potential backers nervous following the reception to Megalopolis. Coppola said he’ll finance the production of Distant Vision with “whatever Megalopolis does.” But based on its opening weekend numbers, it seems unlikely that Megalopolis will bring back enough money to finance another movie of its size. Even if it has good legs, there’s no way Megalopolis’ box office will have the 30x multiplier it needs to make back its budget.
Whatever Megalopolis’ total box office earnings end up being, it’s safe to say that Distant Vision won’t have anywhere near the $120 million afforded to Megalopolis. From The Godfather Part IV to a film adaptation of On the Road to a Dracula sequel called The Van Helsing Chronicles, there are plenty of unrealized projects that Coppola could return to after Megalopolis. There’s no shortage of movies that Coppola could dive into next. Where there’s a will, there’s a way — and Coppola still has more of his winery left to sell off.