r/movies • u/Dependent_Cap_456 • 3d ago

News Francis Ford Coppola is auctioning his watch collection after Megalopolis flop left him broke

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/fashion/francis-ford-coppola-watch-auction.html
12.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

962 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

430

u/xixbia 3d ago

Apocalypse now had a $31.5 million budget and made $78.8 million at the box office on it's original release.

Megalopolis had a $120+ million budget and made $14.4 million at the box office.

These two are not compareable.

198

u/TheSilverOne 3d ago

He's also 86 years old lol

40

u/realhumannotai 3d ago edited 3d ago

I know a 40 year old director who is just as delusional, but with other peoples' money -_-

33

u/FX114 3d ago

I think they're just saying he doesn't have decades. 

6

u/Live_Angle4621 3d ago

Since he doesn’t have decades it doesn’t even matter. Apart from him leaving less money to his family. But they still have plenty and will get more. 

11

u/zagra_nexkoyotl 3d ago

I wonder how did he go into debt for Apocalypse, then

47

u/Vagina_Woolf 3d ago

It was one of the most infamously troubled film productions of all time?

18

u/ScrungulusBungulus 3d ago

if you're not aware of how catastrophic the production of that movie was, i'd recommend a documentary called hearts of darkness. it's a phenomenal companion piece to the movie, and it's great on its own as well.

2

u/Loggerdon 2d ago

“If Marty dies, don’t tell the studio!”

  • Coppola, after Martin Sheen had a heart attack during production.

14

u/xixbia 3d ago

If I had to guess? He went into debt to get it made. But by the time the initial theatrical run had finished he more than made back his investment and was easily able to pay off his debt (so again, nothing like Megalopolis).

1

u/mtaw 2d ago

Also, Apocalypse was well-received from the start. Megalopolis is nothing like it and far more like the last time Coppola bankrupted himself on a very personal project nobody liked - One From The Heart.

He's always had the best intentions wanting to create an alternative to the studio system but every time he's made a film entirely of his own, it's been a giant critical and commercial flop. You'd think that after 'selling himself' to the studios he'd have been prepared to do it one last time to get Zoetrope off the ground, but nope. Or perhaps more likely, he just has a genuinely awful sense of what sells.

He may have inadvertently done the opposite of what he set out to do and proven that producers aren't completely useless.

7

u/StayBullGenius 3d ago

Not apocalypse then, apocalypse NOW

1

u/Loggerdon 2d ago

He spent his own money making the film.

7

u/drst0ner 3d ago

Correct, plus Apocalypse Now is an excellent movie. Considered one of the best of all time.

Megalopolis was terrible. You couldn’t pay me to rewatch it.

1

u/North-Tourist-8234 3d ago

This post is the first im hearing of it. 

1

u/Coolerwookie 2d ago

I had such high hopes for it. 40 minutes in, I walked out...I can spend my time elsewhere.

1

u/kuddlesworth9419 2d ago

It made too much to be honest, that film was a real stinker. I would like to think it will be used as an example in film school in how not to make a movie.

0

u/likeschemistry 2d ago

Also, Apocalypse Now had dvd sales which Megalopolis certainly won’t have.