The film is described as a Roman Epic set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Coppola assembled a stacked ensemble led by Adam Driver (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) and Nathalie Emmanuel (“Furious 7”). The cast also includes Aubrey Plaza (“The White Lotus”), Shia LaBeouf (“Transformers”), Talia Shire (“Rocky”), and Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”), among others.
Early reactions to “Megalopolis” out of Cannes earlier this year were all over the place. It unfortunately won’t benefit from must-see buzz. It also doesn’t help matters that there has been a fair amount of bad press surrounding the film. Aside from the crew member departures, a since-deleted trailer used fake reviews but made them seem real. So even the marketing has been a bit rocky.
In terms of comparisons, it’s looking like it might play like “The Bikeriders,” which opened to $9.6 million domestically and finished with $36 million worldwide. On the very high end, it could do “Challengers” numbers, with the tennis drama opening to $15 million before topping out with $94.2 million worldwide. Even if the film catches on overseas it’s impossible to see a world where it makes more than $150 million total.
It calls to mind Kevin Costner’s Western epic “Horizon: An American Saga” from earlier this year. The first entry in a planned four-film saga topped out with just $35.4 million worldwide against a similarly huge $100 million budget. Warner Bros. was forced to pull the already-finished “Horizon Chapter 2” from its release schedule earlier this year and it remains without a release date.
At the very least, Coppola’s vanity project is a one-and-done. Even if the filmmaker understands what he’s doing, he’s probably going to lose tens of millions of dollars in the short term. If the film can find life on VOD and maintains a long shelf life due to its significance within Coppola’s filmography? He can make at least some of that money back through Blu-ray, streaming, etc. In the short run though, Coppola is just going to have to be happy that his passion project is seeing the light of day.
“Megalopolis” hits theaters on September 27, 2024.