Megalopolis, the Roman fable retold in a modern American fashion, has bombed its debut at the box office. The film was directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola spent quite some time working on the movie before it was made. He sold part of his wine business to raise funds for Megalopolis, which cost about $120 million in production costs and another $20 million in marketing. Nearly 2,000 theatres in the United States and Canada, and as of Saturday evening, it was poised to place sixth on the weekend box office derby behind Devara: Part 1.
Megalopolis’s Poor Performance at the Box Office
The film opened with a disastrous $4 million in ticket sales this past weekend from the United States and Canada. That alone makes the film an epic flop for the veteran director Coppola. The film is told through a satirical science fiction lens in the form of Roman history. Coppola had a history of proving doubters wrong before, pouring millions into the production of Apocalypse Now, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and generated more than $100 million worldwide.
Megalopolis premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival to a huge standing ovation. However, there were mixed reviews, with some critics admiring the ambition while others called it a jumbled mess. Moviegoers rejected the film, causing it to receive a D+ rating from CinemaScore’s audience polling. Lionsgate even had a headache from the promotional side when it released a trailer with fake quotes from real critics doubting Coppola’s past projects.
Lionsgate issued an apology and then pulled the trailer. The film features an all-star cast including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, and Kathryn Hunter.
Megalopolis Audience/Critic Score
The film scored an abysmal 49% critic score from 194 reviews, while it got an even worse 39% audience score from 250+ reviews from the audience. On Metacritic, Megalopolis fares a little better, with 56% from critics and a 5.0 score from audiences. The film is harvesting strong feelings from moviegoers, both positive and negative. In sharp contrast to Megalopolis, The Wild Robot has generated near-universal acclaim from audiences and critics with a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A grade score on CinemaScore.
What went wrong, exactly? A couple of factors led to the film’s poor opening performance. Even when Coppola financed the film, many studios were unwilling to provide the money needed to bring his vision to life on the big screen. Coppola showed the movie to pretty much every huge distributor in Hollywood, but they initially passed on it. Lionsgate eventually got on board with the film in June.
However, Coppola was still held to the marketing fee, and the studio was only getting a distribution fee for the project. Even though reviews don’t always move the needle, it was crucial when one considers a film of this magnitude. Because of the poor reviews, Megalopolis is currently not able to drive the buzz it was looking for. Not only did the film open terribly, but it is most likely going to drop hard going forward. The movie was released on September 27, and it is in theatres now. The film is already up for streaming as it is available for pre-order per Prime Video, AppleTV+, and VUDU on demand for $24.99.
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