“Megaflopolis”: the internet is loving Francis Ford Coppola’s box office dud

1 October, 2024

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi epic Megalopolis is having a rough ride at the cinema box office, with people online labelling it ‘Megaflopolis’.

The film was released in cinemas on Friday (September 27), and is set in an alternate present-day version of America, where Driver’s futuristic architect Cesar Catilina, who has the ability to pause time, is clashing with the conservative mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).

It has been met with less-than-enthusiastic reviews and received a somewhat hostile premiere at Cannes. In NME’s two-star review of Megalopolis, Lou Thomas wrote: “The whole piece is so uneven, that at times it’s akin to watching a toddler being given free rein as an interior decorator. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you always should.”

On its opening weekend at the US box office, the film, which was made for a budget of $120million (£90million), brought in just $4million (£3million) and landed in sixth place.

And now, the term #MegaFLOPolis has been trending on X, with some apparently revelling in the film’s disastrous box office numbers.

One X user likened the film to being “like listening to two guys trying to pitch a film with every idea they’ve ever had while wiping their noses, attempting to hide cocaine they just did in the bathroom.”

See some other reactions to the film’s struggles below:

Megalopolis has been a passion project for the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now since the early 1980s, but has continually been faced with financial challenges. With major studios hesitant to invest, Coppola eventually chose to fund the film himself, selling personal assets, including portions of his wine empire.

The project has been riddled with controversies, with an extra from the film saying she was left “in shock” after being kissed by Coppola on the set, and a trailer that included fake quotes from critics leading to a marketing consultant being fired.

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