The New York Times headline this morning is brutal: “Francis Ford Coppola’s $140-Million ‘Megalopolis’ Plays to Near-Empty Theaters.” There’s no other way to put it. Coppola’s epic has bombed at the box-office with a $4M opening weekend.
“Megalopolis” played in nearly 2,000 theaters in North America. As of Sunday, it was on pace to place sixth in the weekend box office, behind even “Devara Part 1,” a poorly reviewed, three-hour, Telugu-language action movie that was only playing in 1,000 theaters.
In Hollywood, where backbiting and schadenfreude run rampant, some agents and publicists have privately referred to “Megalopolis” as “Megaflopolis” for months.
Coppola, 85, who spent decades on the avant-garde “fable,” sold part of his wine business to raise the film’s financing— about $136M in production costs and another $17M in marketing and distribution. Moviegoers have now rejected the film, which has been getting horrid audience scores, including a dreaded D+ on CinemaScore.