Budget: $120 million [source]
Opening weekend gross: $4 million
Factoring in marketing costs and the theaters taking their cut of the profits, Megalopolis would need to make at least $300 million to break even. I think it’s safe to say that’s not happening.
It would have been THE worst opening for a $100 million movie ever, had it not been for Pluto Nash’s horriffic opening 22 years ago.
Even The New York Times is reporting near-empty screenings of Megalopolis!
I watched it totally alone on Saturday night, never been in a theater alone! I’ve heard there were a lot of walk outs - which I don’t get, theres no accounting for taste of course, but I didn’t think it was leave early bad.
I loved the spectacle and the aesthetic and the fashion, the characters were sorta eh - this is a story where the characters aren’t grounded in realism but are supposed to be stand ins for ideas or movements. Aubrey Plaza was great in it, I actually kinda liked Shia LaBeouf as well. Adam Driver was so-so, but I think that was down to directing. Music choices were odd but I kinda dug it.
I really had a hard time following the plot. Lots of things happened and were resolved in the next scene - felt like about an hour was cut haphazardly. I didn’t have a theatre were an actor was hired to interview Cesar Catalina (Adam Driver) breaking the 4th walll butterfly aspect ratio and frame changed enough to keep some semblance of the effect.
spoiler
Cesar can control time, which is interesting but I think is basically just a literalization of him being an Artist able to freeze time (it’s said as much in the movie), not a gaudy super power
- not really a spoiler it’s like the first scene.
Kind of a bizarre trip, glad Coppola got to make his Moby Dick of a movie. It’s way funnier than I was expecting something as pretentious as I figured it’d be - reminded me of Shakespeare style blending of High Art and Low Art, a comparison I’m sure Coppola would love. I bet I’ll watch this again on streaming or Blu Ray or something years later and see a bunch of stuff that didn’t make sense the first go.
The closest I’ve ever got to being alone in a theatre was a matinee showing of Don’t Breathe like 4 weeks into its run. Got 15 minutes in before someone else came by.
I can’t stand Adam Driver personally
Honestly, don’t think he has much acting chops from what I’ve seen him in. Largely unexpressive and when he is expressing something it doesn’t make me actually feel any connection to that emotion. Mostly, just another gloomy stoic white man. He’s got a weird face and decent fitness but that’s about it imo.
Ouch
While it may be panned now like Shawshank Redemption was I expect this to become a favorite down the road. Calling it here now.
Maybe I’m getting whooshed here, but while Shawshank Redemption had some bad luck at the Oscars, it was nominated for seven of them, including best picture, best actor, and best adapted screenplay. People might not have predicted its staying power, but it was pretty much universally praised.
I saw it and the theater had 6 Gen-X/Boomer white men in it, my weird self and SO (who wanted to leave), and a group of 4 millenials mocking the movie in it.
First hour was pretty engrossing and the end is wild but I get why it’s hard to review. It’s definitely a mashup of all of Francis Ford Coppola’s favorite things and complaints he has.
But it’s an optimists dream like view of reality. It’s akin to Inside by Bo Burnham, except far more hopeful and less pointed, and more like a club to bludgeon you with the message with.
I kinda wish he had an even more limited budget to work with to inspire some real avant garde creativity but I’ll take what we got.
I don’t think it needs to make it’s money back. I don’t think that’s what Coppola was going for. I’m not sure it will even be a cult classic (kinda depends what society does next) and I think that side thought is basically all of Coppola’s point. His medium to talk is just that of film.
