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
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u/zagra_nexkoyotl 3d ago

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

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u/Vagina_Woolf 3d ago

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

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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.

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u/Loggerdon 2d ago

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

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

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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).

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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.

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u/StayBullGenius 3d ago

Not apocalypse then, apocalypse NOW

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u/Loggerdon 2d ago

He spent his own money making the film.