What Megalopolis means for Francis Ford Coppola’s career and future movies

Francis Ford Coppola made the movie he wanted to make with Megalopolis – but its astonishing box office failure means it will probably be much harder for Coppola to make his next. Megalopolis is the ambitious passion project that has been wrapping around Coppola’s head since the 1970s, and after half a century of iterating and pontificating, he finally made the film a reality by going into his own pocket. Coppola self-funded MegalopolisA total $120 million budget by selling off half a billion dollars worth of his winery business.

with Apocalypse now, The conversation, Bram Stoker’s DraculaAnd The godfather trilogy all under his belt, Coppola’s pre-Megalopolis Cinema has made him one of the most legendary filmmakers in Hollywood. But now that Megalopolis finally arrived in theaters and received extremely mixed reviews from critics and audiences, there was some discussion as to whether or not Coppola had lost his touch. Coppola isn’t planning to slow down any time soon, but the box office is failing Megalopolis Could have massive ramifications for the future of his career.

Megalopolis’ Box Office Performance Proves Why Hollywood Was So Afraid of Francis Ford Coppola’s Epic

No studio would touch Megalopolis for 50 years – and now it’s clear why

Coppola began to develop Megalopolis Around the time he finished Apocalypse now In the late ’70s, however 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 support 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 are so cautious about the film’s commercial prospects. The humor is too weird to be a crowd-pleaser, the endless philosophizing is too boring 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. The studios’ concerns were validated when Megalopolis Bombed at the box office on its opening weekendBring only $ 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 can self-finance more projects, but he won’t have much support from Hollywood

It took Coppola almost 50 years to get the financing together Megalopolis. But Now that the movie has arrived as the director’s grandest failure, it will be even harder for Coppola to get his projects off the ground.. There was at least a glimmer of hope that Megalopolis would be the next Godfather Or Apocalypse nowHowever Coppola’s next film will only be seen as the next Megalopolis. If studios are wary about giving Coppola a distribution deal before the failure of MegalopolisThey’ll be tightening the purse strings even more after it made $4 million in its opening weekend.

of course, Coppola could self-finance more of his projects than he did with MegalopolisBut it is much more difficult to spend 120 million dollars from your own money than from a huge media corporation for whom 120 million dollars is a rounding error. Coppola has 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 box office, he may need to rely on funding from a major Hollywood studio — and those studios won’t be quick to give him a ton of money just yet Megalopolis‘ Underperformance.

It’s still great that Francis Ford Coppola made Megalopolis

Coppola is one of the only filmmakers who is in it just 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. Still giving audiences some of the greatest films ever made – including four all-time classics in a row (The godfather, The conversation, The Godfather Part IIAnd Apocalypse now) – Coppola has more than earned the right to make his passion project the way he wanted to make it. It may not have worked for everyone, but it’s still worth celebrating to see one of the greatest contributors to the movie.

While critics and audiences can’t seem to agree on whether or not Megalopolis Is a great film, its own director is quite happy with it. Coppola gave his own movie a five-star review on Letterboxd, so he’s clearly pleased with the final product. In a world where filmmakers are constantly frustrated and unfulfilled when their vision is compromised by internal investors and studio executives, It’s heartening to see a director who was able to get exactly what was in his mind on screen on such a grand 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 Megalopolis. He was vague about the details of one of the movies – describing it simply as “A regular kind of movie“He would like to shoot in England with outside financing – but he was a little more specific on the others: Far vision. Far vision would chronicle”Three generations of an Italian American family,“With history revolving around the invention of television.

Coppola described Far vision like “Another roll of the dice,” similar to MegalopolisA comparison that will surely make potential backers nervous after the reception to Megalopolis. Coppola said that he will finance the production of Far 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 is no way Megalopolis‘ Box office will have the 30x multiplier it needs to recover its budget.

Whatever Megalopolis‘ Total box office earnings end up being, it’s safe to say that Far vision Will not have anywhere near the $120 million afforded to Megalopolis. of The Godfather Part IV to a film adaptation of On the road to a Dracula Sequel called The Van Helsing ChroniclesThere are many unrealized projects that Coppola could return to after Megalopolis. There’s no shortage of movies 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.