As expected, Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” imploded over the weekend. Total take from four days: just $4 million.
Okay? Now we’ve got that out of our system.
The biggest mistake in hindsight was that screening last spring in Los Angeles. It was all movie stars and A list friends of Coppola, and one press person, Mike Fleming of Deadline.
If they were trying to limit damage by just having Fleming it doesn’t make sense. Were they going to somehow prevent the rest of the audience from talking about it? And this was done before there was a distributor or a real invitation to Cannes.
The results were catastrophic. The movie went to Cannes with so much bad buzz it never could survive. The only thing the producers could have done was a few small private showings to distributors, find one, and then launch with no advance press.
But Coppola is taking a career victory lap. I know he wanted the adrenaline rush of Cannes, Venice, the world spotlight. Even if he had to pay for it himself.
So this is over. Coppola loses all the money. Big deal. In December he gets the Kennedy Center honor for making some of the greatest movies of all time. He deserves a standing ovation. Both “Godfather” movies, “Apocalypse Now,” “The Conversation,” not to mention “Gardens of Stone” and the very sweet “Peggy Sue Got Married.” His achievements have been monumental. That’s what we’re celebrating.
Farewell “Megalopolis,” architect of its own demise.
