Francis Ford Coppola Doesn’t Want Anyone to Own ‘Megalopolis’

Ah, Megalopolis. The movie that flopped in so many possible ways is still a topic we are discussing here on Fiction Horizon. Why? Well, Francis Ford Coppola obviously wants us to talk about it and so, here we are.

Megalopolis is a topic we’ve covered extensively here, and we’ve written a lot about the movie’s production process, the horrible reviews, as well as how it flopped completely at the box office, meaning that Coppola won’t be able to get his personal investment back.

But, Coppola is adamant in defending his movie, and while confirming that it is now selling out screenings, he also discussed the movie’s home release, which still hasn’t happened, despite there seemingly being no valid reason for that.

On paper, Megalopolis was a great project. It had a very intriguing and engaging story about the decline of modern America, and in the wake of the recently held elections, the movie should have made a major impact.

On top of that, the movie had a high production budget, and it was directed by one of the best directors of all time, whose passion project it was. To add to that, the movie also boasted a stellar cast led by Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, and Nathalie Emmanuel.

Coppola had a lot of trouble finding a distributor, and he finally decided to invest his own money and… then it flopped. The movie earned a mere $14.3 million on a $120–136 million production budget, and after people saw it, they were more or less shocked by how bad it was.

And while not everyone criticized Coppola, some even called him a visionary, the general consensus was that the movie was just – bad. Coppola has, on the other hand, denied such claims and he has been defending his movie since, claiming that people simply did not or did not want to get it properly.

And while the movie premiered a while ago, the movie still hasn’t been released on home media, which might have helped it achieve the cult status that Coppola is desiring so much. Why? Well, the director has an answer.

“I don’t want anyone to own it,” he said clearly, claiming further that the movie is apparently picking up steam. “After the election, people are selling out screenings of Megalopolis—the way it was intended to be seen. Being that it was so prophetic or prescient to say America is like Rome—it’s going to maybe lose its republic—now people are rushing to see it in theaters.”

“We sold out three screenings in Boston recently, in Detroit, and people are really lining up. It’s just like what happened with Apocalypse Now,” he continues. “Apocalypse Now was a big flop, it got terrible reviews, everyone said it was the worst movie ever made. And yet people never stopped going to see it. The same thing is now happening with Megalopolis.”

And while it is true that Apocalypse Now became a timeless classic, we don’t really know where the Megalopolis information shared by Coppola is coming from, as there is no other official source claiming that the movie is picking up steam.

As for the home release, we don’t really know when and if it is going to happen, but what seems to be the case is that the story of Megalopolis is not over, despite most people (probably) wanting it to end.

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