Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis plays to nearly empty theaters across North America

LOS ANGELES – There’s no polite way to say it: American director Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis was dead on arrival over the weekend.

Coppola, 85, spent decades on the avant-garde tale, eventually selling off part of his wine business to raise the necessary funds – about $US120 million ($153 million) in production costs and another $20 million in marketing and distribution expenses. .

However, moviegoers rejected the film. According to analysts, ticket sales in North America from the night of September 26 through September 29 will total roughly $4 million, which would be slightly below pre-worst-case estimates.

Megalopolis played in approximately 2,000 theaters in the United States and Canada. As of the evening of September 28, it was ranked sixth in the weekend box office derby, behind even the poorly reviewed, three-hour Indian Telugu-language action drama Devara: Chapter 1, which was screened in nearly 1,000 theatres.

Megalopolis tells the story of a brilliant architect (played by American actor Adam Driver) who wants a society to save itself from a dead end. Ticket buyers gave the film a D+ grade in CinemaScore exit polls. It’s rare for a big-budget film from a major director to receive anything less than a B-.

Mr Adam Fogelson, a senior film executive at Lionsgate, which distributes Megalopolis, described Coppola as “a valued member of our creative family” and said the company was “proud to partner” with Coppola to give the film a “wide theatrical release”. “He deserves it.”

“Like all true art, over time it will be viewed and appreciated by film audiences,” Mr. Fogelson added.

Coppola’s spokesman declined to comment.

Megalopolis may have had a shot at theaters in the 1980s, when Coppola first began developing the film. It was a time in Hollywood when ambitious movies aimed at making people think could be moved to several theaters and allowed to build an audience within months, with more screens added each week and sometimes running for a year or more. Hollywood could afford to slow down in part because moviegoing dominated its free time: Not only did the internet not yet exist, cable TV and video games were still in their infancy.

Movies these days generally get booked into as many theaters as possible as quickly as possible, especially if reviews are poor. Studios use this distribution tactic to capitalize on expensive marketing campaigns aimed at appealing to a narrow range of consumers. If audiences don’t materialize immediately, cinema chains divert screens to other films. (On October 4, Warner Bros.’ sequel Joker: Folie A Deux will be released in more than 4,000 theaters.)

Megalopolis almost didn’t make it into theaters.

In early 2024, when Coppola went looking for a distributor, every major studio turned her down. Some executives from these studios admired the film for its artistic risks. But in theaters, no one saw much hope for it. Eventually Lionsgate agreed to distribute the film for a fee.

More and more original movies, if they are made at all, are being sent directly to streaming services. Cinemas are increasingly turning to remakes and sequels.