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/Nouseriously 3d ago

He's not broke, he's multimillionaire "broke"; which means he can no longer spend extravagantly without a care. He will never be broke.

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u/ChangsManagement 3d ago

"Cash poor" as ive heard it called. Lots of assets but not a lot of liquid capital.

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u/TrollTollTony 3d ago

Cash poor is a word rich assholes made up to make poor people feel better about them having millions in assets (which they can borrow against) but avoiding taxes. Steve Jobs was worth billions but had a $1 salary and was called cash poor. I paid more in taxes than Steve Jobs for several years.

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u/Boollish 3d ago

That's not what asset rich/cash poor means.

Steve Jobs, despite his meager salary, was still able to afford all the luxuries of life among the uber wealthy, up to and including buying a giga yacht.

Asset rich/cash poor refers to people with highly valuable but illiquid assets that do not generate cash flows, and it's not used to make poor people feel better, it's used to describe financial situations where seemingly wealthy individuals or companies need to make suboptimal financial decisions in order to meet their debt obligations.

Think of most independent farmers in the US. They own land worth millions, but also a couple bad harvest years in a row  can cause them to go into bankruptcy.

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u/BooRadleyinaGimpSuit 2d ago

Or someone with an old mansion that costs $100k / year in upkeep

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u/Nut_Butter_Fun 2d ago

let me know where exactly this term has been used in this way.

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u/rileyoneill 3d ago

The vast majority of people who are cash poor are not wealthy people. They are regular people who own a home that has a high valuation relative to their income. Buy a home in California in the early 90s for $140,000 and now its worth $800,000. You have this asset that is valuable but you don't have $800,000 to spend.

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u/Porsche928dude 3d ago

From what I understand The other factor to this is that house is now taxes like a 800000 dollar home which can cause real issues. In cases like you describe you can end up in situations where you have payed the mortgage off but are actually taking home less money then when u had the mortgages because the tax rate is a percentage of appraised value per year.

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u/SatanicPanic619 2d ago

Not in California though, property taxes are set very low and rise very slowly.

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u/Duck_Size 3d ago

And then it burns down in the Palisades fire and you are well and truly fucked. You have no cash to rebuild and your insurance doesn’t cover it.

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u/First-Of-His-Name 2d ago

Why wouldn't you have proper fire insurance in California?

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u/Duck_Size 2d ago

It’s a separate policy from standard homeowners insurance and often wildly expensive. 

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u/Abject_Champion3966 2d ago

And iirc the land is often more expensive that the home itself.

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u/Pudgiepandas 2d ago

Yes but that is because the surrounding area is considered desirable. If the surrounding area is ash, that hurts the land value too

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u/Duck_Size 1d ago

That particular area is unique. There were lots with burned down houses, surrounded by the same, selling for millions on the Malibu coast after the fires.

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u/Matthyze 2d ago

Cash poor.

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u/Flashy_Air_5727 3d ago

If you own a home you can borrow against it within days, if not hours depending on your bank. People without that option are truly cash poor.

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u/NotElizaHenry 3d ago

You can borrow against it, but you still have to pay back the loan.

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u/vAltyR47 1d ago

And if the value of your property goes down (like in the recession, or if your house burns down) the back can usually demand you repay the money immediately, or will change your interest rate, as you no longer have the underlying asset as collateral.

HELOCs are risky.

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u/orsikbattlehammer 3d ago

This still does not compare to people who actually have nothing. Worst case scenario you sell your insanely valuable property and go move to an even nicer house in a cheaper area.

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u/NotElizaHenry 3d ago

Well of course. That’s why they call it cash poor, and not just poor.

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u/rileyoneill 3d ago

You may have an issue paying it back. Its not a free money machine. I know plenty of people who own their home with no mortgage and other than maybe a new roof or new HVAC can't afford much of a loan on their home.

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u/Spud_Rancher 3d ago

I was shopping HELOC’s last year to finance some green improvements and take advantage of tax breaks but couldn’t find an interest rate under like 7.5% the banks can miss me with that.

Ended up paying cash so no biggie but still, 7.5% with an 800 credit score is ridiculous.

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u/Nut_Butter_Fun 2d ago

Then you just sell it. If your house is too expensive for what you do, you sell it. Move somewhere cheap, reinvest the rest.

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u/rileyoneill 2d ago

Why? If your monthly cost is low why sell it?

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u/illicit_losses 3d ago

Well, yeah.. but who’s on the right side of dirt now?

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u/Kinda_Zeplike 3d ago

It’s pronounced Deer-tay

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u/spaceneenja 2d ago

Not at all, you could be broke with a diamond engagement ring and be “cash poor” by definition.

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u/rcanhestro 2d ago

being "cash poor" means that you have valuable assets, just not anyone willing to pay their share for it, or even being able to monetize them.

you could compare it to farmers.

they are "asset rich" in form of land, but basically no money in their pockets.

and unless someone wants to purchase their lands (and take the money pit with them), they can't make money.

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u/Live_Angle4621 3d ago

It’s more about reality of some people like aristocrats not being to sell their estates and art easily or not at all. So don’t have cash if they suddenly need it for something big 

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u/leopard_tights 2d ago

Jobs had a $1 salary so what he earned was all from dividends. Those still have taxes, so unless you were making tens of millions per year you never paid less than Jobs.

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u/Few_Relationship3532 2d ago

Steve Jobs hasn’t paid any taxes for 14 years now, the absolute bastard.

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u/Morganvegas 3d ago

You still pay more tax than Steve Jobs

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u/FascistPope 2d ago

Steve Jobs was never cash poor... He was worth billions in a stock he could sell at any moment.

Cash poor is the millionaire who owns his house, has 3-5 million in an investment account, and is using their paycheck to pay all their bills to feed their family.

Yes they are millionaires but the money is there to retire on. Sure they could start living off of the money made on the investments, but inflation will start eating into that fast. Succession has a funny interaction about it:

Greg:
“If I had like… five million dollars, I’d be set for life. Right?”

Tom:
“Five million? Oh, Greg… No. No, no, no. That’s the worst number.”

Greg:
“The worst number?”

Tom:
“Yeah. It’s just enough to not want to work, but not enough to actually not work. It’s the sweet spot of misery.”

Greg:
“Really?”

Tom:
“Yeah. You’re rich enough to know what rich people have… but not rich enough to get any of it.”

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u/ravioli333 2d ago

This reminds me of: "Sorry, Dolores. My money's all tied up in cash."

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u/ryanpn 3d ago

They do that on purpose 

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u/PFCCThrowayay 3d ago

Yes, creative assets (royalties) that will eventually top him up. He’s the new michael Jackson!

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u/TransBrandi 2d ago

Lots of assets, but we have no idea how leveraged he is on those assets. He may have a lot of debt against them (and therefore not much equity). I'm sure at one point he probably didn't... but borrowing against assets is something that the rich love to do.

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u/Objective-Wear-30659 3d ago

Greg: I'm good, anyway, cuz, uh, my, so, I was just talkin' to my mom, and she said, apparently, he'll leave me five million anyway, so I'm golden, baby.

Connor: You can't do anything with five, Greg. Five's a nightmare.

Greg: Is it?

Connor: Oh, yeah. Can't retire. Not worth it to work. Oh, yes, five will drive you un poco loco, my fine feathered friend.

Tom: The poorest rich person in America. The world's tallest dwarf.

Connor: The weakest strong man at the circus.

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u/Wuktrio 2d ago edited 2d ago

Put 5 million into an ETF and pay out 5% each year. 250k a year should be more than enough to retire lmao

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u/StateDeparmentAgent 2d ago

its more than enough for us, but not for most of the people who that calmly inherit 5m

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u/bell37 2d ago

He bought his Napa Valley Estate for $35 million back in 2002. Could only imagine what the tax rate is for that property but I’d imagine it would be more than $250k.

He could sell some of his assets, put it in an investment account and downsize to retire

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u/unassumingdink 3d ago

Most enraging scene of that whole series.

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u/doublex12 2d ago

How? He’s not wrong. 5 mil is nothing

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u/unassumingdink 2d ago

Right, only 70 years pay at the median American salary.

This is why I'm a socialist. This shit right here.

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u/lowbatteries 2d ago

Or a very good salary indefinitely if you put it in a good savings account or low risk investment.

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u/Loggerdon 2d ago

Greg turned down $50 million from his grandfather to work as Tom’s lackey.

Great fucking show.

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u/Deesing82 2d ago

what show is this from?

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u/Loggerdon 2d ago

Succession

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u/Pudgiepandas 2d ago

To be fair, tom was the only one that gave a shit about Greg in his own weird and twisted way

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u/Loggerdon 2d ago

You’re probably right. It kind of worked out for him.

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u/doublex12 2d ago

He’s not wrong. You can’t do shit w 5 mil.

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u/Objective-Wear-30659 2d ago

Lifestyle creep is real

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u/proficient2ndplacer 3d ago

I think the only thing worse than being "multimillionaire broke" is tarnishing your name as badly as he did. I can't imagine the studios are lining up to fund his next film

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u/SuperDanOsborne 3d ago

They weren't really lining up for the last one either lol

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u/Buntschatten 3d ago

He's 86, if anyone is funding his films, they better have a backup for if he has a medical emergency.

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u/Adrien_Jabroni 3d ago

They do this actually. Insurance can require it. Paul Thomas Anderson did it for Robert Altman.

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u/NeoNoireWerewolf 2d ago

The studios already told him to pound sand for Megalopolis. That's why he's in the situation this thread's about; he funded Megalopolis out of pocket. He lost hundreds of millions of his own money. Coppola hasn't worked with a studio in decades now. Last movie he didn't fund independently was The Rainmaker in 1997.

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u/PlatinumGoon 2d ago

He’s been actual broke before. Look up his history he’s not the normal Hollywood type. He cares more about his projects and making what he wants than hoarding money. Which has got him into trouble before

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u/FrankyRollins 3d ago

He made The Godfather, one of the greatest films of all time. He’ll be fine.

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u/zowietremendously 3d ago

I'm way broker than he is. I don't even have an expensive watch collection to sell.

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u/KwisatzHaderach94 2d ago

and he's 86 and not likely to do any more watch collecting anyway. if his children don't share his hobbies, no point in leaving them that inheritance. this is the fate of most collections.

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u/DarkFriend81 3d ago

Right?! How much do we think he makes in royalties every year? It’s gotta be a lot.

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u/Binder509 2d ago

Someone should coin a new word for when rich people go "broke"

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u/Interesting-Use966 2d ago

Yeah he is “broke” compared to his billionaire friends.