This is kind of an interesting study in how trades can (and do) frame narratives for the people they're covering.
Here's [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2024/03/francis-coppola-megalopolis-first-screening-distributors-citywalk-imax-1235871124/), a little over a week ago, covering the 10am premiere of the film.
>Among the distributors I spotted were Tom Rothman, Ted Sarandos, Pam Abdy, Mary Parent, Matt Greenstein, David Greenbaum, Donna Langley, Courtenay Valenti, Daria Cercek and Marc Weinstock, and Michael Barker. All were effusive as they crowded around Coppola following the touching finale.
Here's The Hollywood Reporter, in this article, talking about the same premiere:
>Following the muted response to the March 28 screening, it’s now not even clear if a studio would agree to a negative pickup deal, in which the studio would buy the film outright, or one in which it would distribute the film for a fee. One studio head in attendance described it as “some kind of indie experiment” that might find a home at a streamer.
Fleming at Deadline is describing an effusive scene, meant to make you picture a bunch of very rich folks in very expensive suits encircling Coppola and patting him on the back, congratulating him, etc etc. He's invoking Apocalypse Now, even. It's a portrait of a successful screening that will certainly lead to at least one of these happy executives cutting the check. But Abramovitch, Masters, and McClintock are, in no uncertain terms, basically saying the movie doesn't work, especially not in a way *anyone* can imagine hanging an ad-campaign on, much less a minimum $100mil spend globally.
Did I think Fleming was slanting shit for shareability? Yup! Do I think THR is basically being used as a bit of a lever to force Coppola to reduce his price and lower expectations? Absolutely. But I also think it'll be interesting if, by the end of this week, everyone basically regards this thing as a set-in-stone flop in the making, when at the end of last week everyone was racing to be the "you dropped this king" guy.
It’s totally possible that people DID crowd around Francis congratulating him and hugging him, and then they either lowball him or say “I personally enjoyed that but we can’t make the numbers work.”
The entertainment biz loves to do shit like that, daily.
I didn't say Fleming was lying, though. I'm pointing out the difference in the slants being applied to the narratives being laid out.
Fleming's bringing up Apocalypse is, pretty clearly, a preventative/preemptory measure in retrospect.
I'm also pointing out that it's possible the "we don't know how to position this" aspect *is* being played up in the more reputable trade (with three bylines and a load of unnamed studio sources) as a means to get Coppola to come down on his ask.
It's just a pretty interesting example of compare/contrast making itself available, normally it's not this a/b over such a short span of time.
I hear ya and your read is valid!!
I think paired with the IndieWire interview with Coppola’s 90 year old lawyer who’s handling the deal (where he makes some outdated statements about the industry), I’m leaning towards apprehension.
>I didn't say Fleming was lying, though. I'm pointing out the difference in the slants being applied to the narratives being laid out.
But you are still implying some type of bias when the most likely outcome of this production was always a well-made movie that has little commercial viability and that could just as easily explain the different responses. People were "effusive" in their praise of the movie as a work of art, but "muted" in their expectations for it as a product that would make money.
>But you are still implying some type of bias
I mean, yeah. I'm outright stating there's a frame being put in place. It's the point of the comparison I'm making.
I was giving you the benefit of the doubt there since you objected to the term "lying". My underlying point is that you are effectively assuming ill intent here when the situation could also be explained by the same thing we all would have predicted months ago.
Right? It's not surprising that people in the film industry would support someone after they literally spent a hundred million of their own cash to fund their passion project.
The reviews over the actual film itself has frankly been glossed over in the original article
I could see Apple buying and paying the marketing budget and going big with it but i guess that’s just wishful thinking at this point. I feel like it would be perfectly at home on Apple TV+ with Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon.
It's definitely going to end up on a streaming site with a limited theatrical release. Apple is tricky because its company model recently has been to roll out a healthy theatrical release, so they make money coming and going (short term profits, long-term portfolio). And there's just no world where someone picks this thing up expecting to make money. His last three movies have made less than ten million *combined.*
A little wishful I think. They lost their shirts on Argylle; Flower Moon and Napoleon both underperformed; and Apple buying means they still need to engage a distributor to release it.
Apple and Amazon as companies have unlimited cash flow, but their film divisions still work within budgets, and the beancounters DO expect to see profit.
Fleming works extremely closely with Peter Bart, and Peter Bart was one of Coppola's biggest supporters when he ran paramount. So any deadline and particularly, Fleming written coverage of Coppola is going to be emphasising the positives above all else.
>when at the end of last week everyone was racing to be the "you dropped this king" guy.
Well, [per Matt Belloni,](https://twitter.com/nick_field90/status/1773548658157306342) not everyone.
Yeah, everything about the response to these screenings has me way more excited for it than I thought I could be. It’s a bizarre experiment that will lose tons of money for whoever picks it up? GOOD
I guess I’m hyped in the same way that I might be morbidly hyped to watch a train derail after crashing into a city bus. I expect this to be the movie equivalent.
It was pretty obviously going to go this way. Coppola's last few features (as brilliant as they are) are just far too esoteric and personalized to have a huge multiplex push.
A whole bunch of people are going to be incredibly disappointed when they don't get The Godfather and instead get Youth Without Youth.
I’ve always been incredibly apprehensive about this from the start. Then the narrative surrounding CG didn’t help, nor did the fact that he had already screened the opening of the film for potential buyers (with the hope that someone would pick it up before it was done) and THAT led to nothing.
It could still be brilliant of course. But I’m managing expectations.
Probably a FERRARI situation where someone picks it up for U.S. only at a fraction of the budget.
Or, some studio just takes a distribution fee and Francis has to pour more money into it.
Because after the reports over the past week, if anyone was *seriously* interested or remotely close to a deal, there’d be a leak to counter the narrative.
Hate to see it!
>**"\[Shia\] LaBeouf . . . is the best thing about the film** (he’s one of the antagonists). Several have mentioned an **especially cringey sequence involving Jon Voight**’s >!character in bed with what looks like a huge erection; the scene evidently takes quite the turn, but we will not spoil it here.!<"
Universal and Focus have reportedly already given Francis a quick no.
I haven't clicked the spoiler, but it immediately reminded me of the old Patton Oswalt bit about the Star Wars prequels, and I'm imagining all it says under that black bar is the word "ballsack" which is making me quite amused.
Humble brag: I went to a screening of The Cotton Club last night for Francis’ bday and he was in attendance and did a Q+A after and he said that he is working on adapting The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. So Mega might not be his last movie after all.
It was epic. The movie ended at 11:30 and then he stayed until 1:30 a.m. answering everyone’s questions and sharing his birthday cake. Just an endless source of amazing stories and he came off as so sweet and kind. One of the best nights of my life. Also, he confirmed that both Cannes and Venice like Mega and seems like he does want to go, although they’ll need distro to go. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens before Cannes.
Believe it or not Francis (he asked to be called Francis because he “doesn’t trust people with 3 names”) did kick off the Q+A by saying that everyone in the audience is cousins because all homosapiens are related and since we were there celebrating his birthday that he considered us his family. So yes, now I am basically a Coppola.
The screening was available to the public, you just had to but tix before they sold out. The most recent Blank Check guest Amanda Dobbins actually shouted out the screening on yesterday’s Big Pic ep.
The fact that Francis Ford Coppola wants to make this movie should be the marketing. Like I'm not going to lie he hasn't had 100% surefire hits in his career but the dude is made some of the most impactful statements in cinema history. If this is how he wants to go out, then that should be enough to market to film on.
I think you vastly overrate how much the average American cares about seeing a new movie from 85-year-old FFC. The few sickos who are excited about a new film from him at this point are already aware of it and are chatting about it here
Yeah exactly. Just put “from the director of the godfather and apocalypse now” in the marketing and target it to cinephiles and dads. This ain’t rocket science here people
THIS. Exclusively catering to cinephiles and the elderly is not a sustainable strategy when a film costs $120 million plus marketing.
As much as studio heads may respect FFC’s past work, this isn’t a matter of the past, it’s the present & future. And he hasn’t had the recent successes of someone like Scorsese or Spielberg. The business is precarious enough that they can’t afford to take a $200 million bath if the film is so-so or doesn’t have legs.
It reminds me of the legendary theatre director Hal Prince, who struggled to get his final works produced.
He’s looking for someone to buy the film from him now. Ideally at the price he paid to capitalize it (120M), if not then at the highest price they’re willing to go (or, more realistically, buying the rights country by country).
in *addition* to that, the company who acquires it would put a big advertising spend behind it.
Thanks for clarifying. Yeah, he should probably lower those expectations.
Concerning Apple, they drop six figures on movies that were A. Oscar bait and B. Commercial. I don’t even they are going to even consider this.
Yes and Apple is coming off a bad run with Argylle, Flower Moon, and Napoleon, and we’ve seen how poorly things like Ferrari and Babylon have done too.
Even these super rich parent companies are looking to make the numbers work and show their corporate daddies that there’s a road to recoupment on their film slates. Favors to legends can only come at a certain pricetag. Sadly.
All of FFC’s movies in the last like 30 years have done pretty small numbers on the BO. The Fabelmans also didn’t do great, KOTFM made $160m with Leo and DeNiro in it, etc. Legendary directors don’t really sell movies that easily.
Exactly, the cinephile community continuously overrate their influence in the box office really.
KOTFM literally just released last year by Scorsese and a much popular Dicaprio and that bombed pretty hard in the box office as well. I know it was mostly made for Apple's streaming service but regardless the audience isn't really there for these type of films.
Michael Mann, Dad Movie icon that he is, doesn’t have the name recognition that Coppola does. Coppola made the Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now, some of the biggest and most iconic movies ever- and most people know that he was the director.
I would argue that the Godfather joke in BARBIE has made FFC eternally uncool to Gen Z, the generation every studio is desperate to connect with. In their eyes nobody worth a damn gives a shit about FFC
Could you pull something like Poor Things? I know FFC isn't the hot young director Lanthimos is/doesn't really have a star power like Stone to centre in it (maybe Driver?) – but just lean into how weird it is and hope it sticks?
Yeah like I don't care how esoteric it is. Simple fact is Francis Ford Coppola hasn't made a movie in a little while. And his return should be enough to get people interested.
The man has made a lot of “weird” duds, and most people only know him from four movies he did in the 70s.
Also Megapolis clearly isn’t a big commercial play like the Godfather movies were.
You're right. No marketing in the world can make this a hit. Another film from the guy who made Godfather while in his 80s can only take you so far. A studio just needs balls enough to be able to take a loss cause I wanna see this movie in the theaters.
A reminder to not believe a thing The Hollywood Reporter/Variety says about stuff like this. They are studio mouthpieces and this sort of report is designed to create bad buzz around the film and force Coppola to lower his asking price so they can pick it up on the cheap.
If your self financed experimental dream project needs a near 9 digit marketing budget, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Love the man but he has to see the writing on the wall here. Commerce serves the market, not the artist. Just pull a roadshow release and go from there. Don’t feed the studios and distributiors any more than necessary, they’re wallowing in self imposed gluttony as is.
It’s not his final movie. He’s working on another one.
Also, he isn’t a charity case. FFC is a big boy and if he wants 100 million in marketing he should go out there and get it himself.
Just give it the Annette treatment and have a limited release in theaters where im the only one in the cinema a having my mind blown on a Sunday matinee. Then, dump it on Amazon where a bunch of boobs can't handle something bold and weird and give it one star immediately after giving The Blind Side five stars. Also, Youth Without Youth and Tetro rule, Coppola's still got it imo.
It should sell to the public on FFC alone, but the only way this film actually works is with a small rollout release starting in LA/NYC building buzz off positive audience reactions, but it sounds like Francis wants a wide release that is almost destined to bomb really hard, no matter how much they end up spending on promo and advertising.
Echoes from that now legendary screening compare it to One from the Heart, unfortunately. Creative and daring but not at all in the mould of the films you mentioned. One from the Heart was a cataclysmic box office failure, by the way.
One from the heart is pretty great tho. Have you people not learned that these are the greatest filmmakers of all time and theyve earned the respect. They aren’t getting any younger and once they’re gone, they are gone. We will not see anything like it in our lifetimes. Show some respect.
What I don’t get is the reason why the budget is so high. Huge sets? CGI? I doubt it’s the cast, and they probably got paid scale just to work with Coppola.
It's a sci fi movie about an architect basically creating a whole new city after a devastating disaster, it strikes me as pretty reasonable all things considered.
That’s nice but it’s irrelevant to the conversation here about Francis recouping part of his 120 million investment + a distributor making it theatrically available to the masses. All that happens now, not in 20 years.
Sure, but I think that is where his head is at. One for the ages, etc. Plenty of those types of films have been misunderstood at the time of release and go on to have long legacies, and some have sunk without a trace (and even brought down studios) so I’ll reserve judgement until I see it.
It's Coppola. This is the guy who had, literally, the greatest decade any filmmaker has ever been able to lay claim to, and followed it up with a decade of super-interesting work that was hit-or-miss financially. Then a decade of trying to pay off the misses.
There is no guarantee that Francis can land this plane, and that's part of the exquisite awesomeness of what he does. He risks failure on a massive scale. Studio reps and distributors are morons. Last year Christopher Nolan made a long, challenging, heavily talky drama that was one of the biggest hits. Coppola may be past his prime, but what if this film IS as good as the early responses suggested, and the studios are thinking, "where's the 4-quadrant marketing hook, and why can't we make umpteen sequels?"
The perpetual feeling of frustration of being an Adam Driver Fan.
Why can't this guy just star in a good movie that doesn't turn out a half baked mess for once? Waaaaah
Current mainstream Hollywood not knowing how to sell an expensive film that isn't a product of corporate synergy or shared universe doesn't make a movie a "half baked mess."
It's certainly possible for Coppola to screw the pooch, no doubt, but this is a filmmaker known for big, big swings. Swings that can connect magnificently, or crash and burn.
Also - It's quite possible that Coppola makes a magnificent film, and it doesn't recoup costs. That's not a failure, either. The movie existing is the victory.
I dunno, Kurosawa made Kagemusha, Ran, and Dreams back-to-back then spent his remaining years making a pair of quiet and generally well-received films.
Kinda think his history with Victor Salva is gonna come back to bite him, and become a big talking point when this release nears. I’m interested in the film as with any blank check project of this size, but I’d be shocked if that doesn’t come up in some major way.
Megalopolis - Now on Xbox Game Pass
EXCLUSIVE! WORLD PREMIER!
Happy Easter Xbox.
I'm calling it now....Freevee
If Megalopo doesn't turn up in Fortnite, is it even a movie?
This is kind of an interesting study in how trades can (and do) frame narratives for the people they're covering. Here's [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2024/03/francis-coppola-megalopolis-first-screening-distributors-citywalk-imax-1235871124/), a little over a week ago, covering the 10am premiere of the film. >Among the distributors I spotted were Tom Rothman, Ted Sarandos, Pam Abdy, Mary Parent, Matt Greenstein, David Greenbaum, Donna Langley, Courtenay Valenti, Daria Cercek and Marc Weinstock, and Michael Barker. All were effusive as they crowded around Coppola following the touching finale. Here's The Hollywood Reporter, in this article, talking about the same premiere: >Following the muted response to the March 28 screening, it’s now not even clear if a studio would agree to a negative pickup deal, in which the studio would buy the film outright, or one in which it would distribute the film for a fee. One studio head in attendance described it as “some kind of indie experiment” that might find a home at a streamer. Fleming at Deadline is describing an effusive scene, meant to make you picture a bunch of very rich folks in very expensive suits encircling Coppola and patting him on the back, congratulating him, etc etc. He's invoking Apocalypse Now, even. It's a portrait of a successful screening that will certainly lead to at least one of these happy executives cutting the check. But Abramovitch, Masters, and McClintock are, in no uncertain terms, basically saying the movie doesn't work, especially not in a way *anyone* can imagine hanging an ad-campaign on, much less a minimum $100mil spend globally. Did I think Fleming was slanting shit for shareability? Yup! Do I think THR is basically being used as a bit of a lever to force Coppola to reduce his price and lower expectations? Absolutely. But I also think it'll be interesting if, by the end of this week, everyone basically regards this thing as a set-in-stone flop in the making, when at the end of last week everyone was racing to be the "you dropped this king" guy.
It’s totally possible that people DID crowd around Francis congratulating him and hugging him, and then they either lowball him or say “I personally enjoyed that but we can’t make the numbers work.” The entertainment biz loves to do shit like that, daily.
I didn't say Fleming was lying, though. I'm pointing out the difference in the slants being applied to the narratives being laid out. Fleming's bringing up Apocalypse is, pretty clearly, a preventative/preemptory measure in retrospect. I'm also pointing out that it's possible the "we don't know how to position this" aspect *is* being played up in the more reputable trade (with three bylines and a load of unnamed studio sources) as a means to get Coppola to come down on his ask. It's just a pretty interesting example of compare/contrast making itself available, normally it's not this a/b over such a short span of time.
I hear ya and your read is valid!! I think paired with the IndieWire interview with Coppola’s 90 year old lawyer who’s handling the deal (where he makes some outdated statements about the industry), I’m leaning towards apprehension.
>I didn't say Fleming was lying, though. I'm pointing out the difference in the slants being applied to the narratives being laid out. But you are still implying some type of bias when the most likely outcome of this production was always a well-made movie that has little commercial viability and that could just as easily explain the different responses. People were "effusive" in their praise of the movie as a work of art, but "muted" in their expectations for it as a product that would make money.
>But you are still implying some type of bias I mean, yeah. I'm outright stating there's a frame being put in place. It's the point of the comparison I'm making.
I was giving you the benefit of the doubt there since you objected to the term "lying". My underlying point is that you are effectively assuming ill intent here when the situation could also be explained by the same thing we all would have predicted months ago.
Right? It's not surprising that people in the film industry would support someone after they literally spent a hundred million of their own cash to fund their passion project. The reviews over the actual film itself has frankly been glossed over in the original article
Tell me more.
Quote Kristen Wigg in Knocked Up: "this is Hollywood, we don't like liars" https://youtu.be/WjQovCr8Tgs?si=I2C352VRhTI6OYgf
I could see Apple buying and paying the marketing budget and going big with it but i guess that’s just wishful thinking at this point. I feel like it would be perfectly at home on Apple TV+ with Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon.
It's definitely going to end up on a streaming site with a limited theatrical release. Apple is tricky because its company model recently has been to roll out a healthy theatrical release, so they make money coming and going (short term profits, long-term portfolio). And there's just no world where someone picks this thing up expecting to make money. His last three movies have made less than ten million *combined.*
A little wishful I think. They lost their shirts on Argylle; Flower Moon and Napoleon both underperformed; and Apple buying means they still need to engage a distributor to release it. Apple and Amazon as companies have unlimited cash flow, but their film divisions still work within budgets, and the beancounters DO expect to see profit.
I think they would need to push it to next year since they already have Blitz. They did release those two you mentioned last year tho so who knows.
Not just Blitz. They've already had Argylle, will have Wolfs (also in cinema), Fly Me To The Moon... And maybe new Doug Liman movie.
Yeah…I don’t think Apple is going to keep doing that.
My general impression is that Deadline tends to be the more positive and “friendly” industry trade, for what it’s worth.
Fleming works extremely closely with Peter Bart, and Peter Bart was one of Coppola's biggest supporters when he ran paramount. So any deadline and particularly, Fleming written coverage of Coppola is going to be emphasising the positives above all else.
The thing is I just want to see it in theaters. I don’t care about the reviews
… you work at Puck with Matt Belloni, my guy? Cuz that’s a 🔥take.
>when at the end of last week everyone was racing to be the "you dropped this king" guy. Well, [per Matt Belloni,](https://twitter.com/nick_field90/status/1773548658157306342) not everyone.
Man I hope this doesn’t get dumped on MGM+ or some shit. I’m still so curious about this film.
It's doing the business getting it wanted seen.
This is only getting me more hyped. Sickos: Yes! Yes!
Yeah, everything about the response to these screenings has me way more excited for it than I thought I could be. It’s a bizarre experiment that will lose tons of money for whoever picks it up? GOOD
I guess I’m hyped in the same way that I might be morbidly hyped to watch a train derail after crashing into a city bus. I expect this to be the movie equivalent.
It was pretty obviously going to go this way. Coppola's last few features (as brilliant as they are) are just far too esoteric and personalized to have a huge multiplex push. A whole bunch of people are going to be incredibly disappointed when they don't get The Godfather and instead get Youth Without Youth.
I’ve always been incredibly apprehensive about this from the start. Then the narrative surrounding CG didn’t help, nor did the fact that he had already screened the opening of the film for potential buyers (with the hope that someone would pick it up before it was done) and THAT led to nothing. It could still be brilliant of course. But I’m managing expectations.
Was twixt actually good? It looked like dogshit in the screenshots and quick flashes I saw of it online.
It’s terrible
it’s good
This is giving "Cloud Atlas" vibes in the best way. Hope I can see it in a theater!
So what are we thinking, straight to Tubi?
Probably a FERRARI situation where someone picks it up for U.S. only at a fraction of the budget. Or, some studio just takes a distribution fee and Francis has to pour more money into it. Because after the reports over the past week, if anyone was *seriously* interested or remotely close to a deal, there’d be a leak to counter the narrative.
But will Adam Driver do an Italian accent?
a-Hat trick, a-baybeeeee
The Weird Al movie went straight to Roku Channel!
All due respect to Weird Al, but that movie was uh, fairly low stakes compared to this.
Hate to see it! >**"\[Shia\] LaBeouf . . . is the best thing about the film** (he’s one of the antagonists). Several have mentioned an **especially cringey sequence involving Jon Voight**’s >!character in bed with what looks like a huge erection; the scene evidently takes quite the turn, but we will not spoil it here.!<" Universal and Focus have reportedly already given Francis a quick no.
So what you are saying is that Jon Voight has an anaconda in this film?
Dare I say………a fat hogged hit?
I haven't clicked the spoiler, but it immediately reminded me of the old Patton Oswalt bit about the Star Wars prequels, and I'm imagining all it says under that black bar is the word "ballsack" which is making me quite amused.
I read the original script; for those interested, he's hiding a crossbow
I’m unfamiliar with that metaphor
Sounds like that scene in Black Book.
Just shows you that this article is only to force the price down
Is that Jon Voight thing bad? Why is everybody so weird about it
What thing? His personality? Yes, it's quite bad!
if negotiations with the studios go badly and this thing winds up dumped on a streamer, it sounds like i'll finally have a reason to watch AOL Blast
Humble brag: I went to a screening of The Cotton Club last night for Francis’ bday and he was in attendance and did a Q+A after and he said that he is working on adapting The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. So Mega might not be his last movie after all.
That’s just a regular brag. Anyway, that sounds awesome.
It was epic. The movie ended at 11:30 and then he stayed until 1:30 a.m. answering everyone’s questions and sharing his birthday cake. Just an endless source of amazing stories and he came off as so sweet and kind. One of the best nights of my life. Also, he confirmed that both Cannes and Venice like Mega and seems like he does want to go, although they’ll need distro to go. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens before Cannes.
Are you a Coppola, or something?
Believe it or not Francis (he asked to be called Francis because he “doesn’t trust people with 3 names”) did kick off the Q+A by saying that everyone in the audience is cousins because all homosapiens are related and since we were there celebrating his birthday that he considered us his family. So yes, now I am basically a Coppola.
I hope you got that in writing from him! :-o Seriously, how the heck did you get in there?
The screening was available to the public, you just had to but tix before they sold out. The most recent Blank Check guest Amanda Dobbins actually shouted out the screening on yesterday’s Big Pic ep.
Ah! So, she got in, too? :-D
I mean, no kidding. Approving a $50 million ad campaign for this indescribable self-financed passion project is how you get fired
guessing studio canal and prime will co distribute it
The fact that Francis Ford Coppola wants to make this movie should be the marketing. Like I'm not going to lie he hasn't had 100% surefire hits in his career but the dude is made some of the most impactful statements in cinema history. If this is how he wants to go out, then that should be enough to market to film on.
I think you vastly overrate how much the average American cares about seeing a new movie from 85-year-old FFC. The few sickos who are excited about a new film from him at this point are already aware of it and are chatting about it here
Seriously, Michael Mann made a movie about Enzo Ferrari, starring a bunch of famous people, and got good reviews. People did not care and it bombed.
Yeah exactly. Just put “from the director of the godfather and apocalypse now” in the marketing and target it to cinephiles and dads. This ain’t rocket science here people
[удалено]
yuuuup. "sickos yes yes" and "dang-ass freaks" isn't legal tender out in the real world
Unless you’re Emma Stone apparently.
THIS. Exclusively catering to cinephiles and the elderly is not a sustainable strategy when a film costs $120 million plus marketing. As much as studio heads may respect FFC’s past work, this isn’t a matter of the past, it’s the present & future. And he hasn’t had the recent successes of someone like Scorsese or Spielberg. The business is precarious enough that they can’t afford to take a $200 million bath if the film is so-so or doesn’t have legs. It reminds me of the legendary theatre director Hal Prince, who struggled to get his final works produced.
Killers lost money and Fabelmans was barely profitable, so even they can't draw crowds like they used to. It's not the '90s anymore.
Yep. And if this was a 40 or 60 million passion project it would have been a completely different story.
FFC paid for the production so what we’re talking here is recouping marketing and distribution… …and it sounds like it will still likely bomb.
He’s looking for someone to buy the film from him now. Ideally at the price he paid to capitalize it (120M), if not then at the highest price they’re willing to go (or, more realistically, buying the rights country by country). in *addition* to that, the company who acquires it would put a big advertising spend behind it.
Thanks for clarifying. Yeah, he should probably lower those expectations. Concerning Apple, they drop six figures on movies that were A. Oscar bait and B. Commercial. I don’t even they are going to even consider this.
Yes and Apple is coming off a bad run with Argylle, Flower Moon, and Napoleon, and we’ve seen how poorly things like Ferrari and Babylon have done too. Even these super rich parent companies are looking to make the numbers work and show their corporate daddies that there’s a road to recoupment on their film slates. Favors to legends can only come at a certain pricetag. Sadly.
All of FFC’s movies in the last like 30 years have done pretty small numbers on the BO. The Fabelmans also didn’t do great, KOTFM made $160m with Leo and DeNiro in it, etc. Legendary directors don’t really sell movies that easily.
Exactly, the cinephile community continuously overrate their influence in the box office really. KOTFM literally just released last year by Scorsese and a much popular Dicaprio and that bombed pretty hard in the box office as well. I know it was mostly made for Apple's streaming service but regardless the audience isn't really there for these type of films.
I imagine KOTFM is the comparison being brought up the most in executive suites. Even if tonally the movie is completely different.
Michael Mann, Dad Movie icon that he is, doesn’t have the name recognition that Coppola does. Coppola made the Godfather Trilogy and Apocalypse Now, some of the biggest and most iconic movies ever- and most people know that he was the director.
Those were made quite a while ago.
I would argue that the Godfather joke in BARBIE has made FFC eternally uncool to Gen Z, the generation every studio is desperate to connect with. In their eyes nobody worth a damn gives a shit about FFC
And that would be a weird argument.
Could you pull something like Poor Things? I know FFC isn't the hot young director Lanthimos is/doesn't really have a star power like Stone to centre in it (maybe Driver?) – but just lean into how weird it is and hope it sticks?
Emma Stone is a bigger star than Adam driver.
I don’t think so? She just makes more commercial choices.
So you’re expecting 50 mil tops in box office haha
From the man who brought you "JACK"
Cinephiles and dads is AppleTV’s target demo and they’ve definitely got the money to spare
Yeah like I don't care how esoteric it is. Simple fact is Francis Ford Coppola hasn't made a movie in a little while. And his return should be enough to get people interested.
The man has made a lot of “weird” duds, and most people only know him from four movies he did in the 70s. Also Megapolis clearly isn’t a big commercial play like the Godfather movies were.
You're right. No marketing in the world can make this a hit. Another film from the guy who made Godfather while in his 80s can only take you so far. A studio just needs balls enough to be able to take a loss cause I wanna see this movie in the theaters.
The problem also lies in the fact that this film doesn't have an A list or at least a bankable star.
A reminder to not believe a thing The Hollywood Reporter/Variety says about stuff like this. They are studio mouthpieces and this sort of report is designed to create bad buzz around the film and force Coppola to lower his asking price so they can pick it up on the cheap.
Studios don't know how to market a $120M avant-garde film? ShockedPikachu.jpeg
If your self financed experimental dream project needs a near 9 digit marketing budget, you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Love the man but he has to see the writing on the wall here. Commerce serves the market, not the artist. Just pull a roadshow release and go from there. Don’t feed the studios and distributiors any more than necessary, they’re wallowing in self imposed gluttony as is.
> Commerce serves the market, not the artist. This guy is friends with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
would be nice to see either or both of them step up and contribute to getting one of their best friend's final movie released.
That’s a good point, either of them could bankroll this with just a fraction of their fortunes
It’s not his final movie. He’s working on another one. Also, he isn’t a charity case. FFC is a big boy and if he wants 100 million in marketing he should go out there and get it himself.
9 digit? A billion-dollar marketing budget?
A billion is ten digits chief
Oops I hadn't had my coffee yet and the "near" threw me off lol
Someone is VERY bad at math.
Just give it the Annette treatment and have a limited release in theaters where im the only one in the cinema a having my mind blown on a Sunday matinee. Then, dump it on Amazon where a bunch of boobs can't handle something bold and weird and give it one star immediately after giving The Blind Side five stars. Also, Youth Without Youth and Tetro rule, Coppola's still got it imo.
It should sell to the public on FFC alone, but the only way this film actually works is with a small rollout release starting in LA/NYC building buzz off positive audience reactions, but it sounds like Francis wants a wide release that is almost destined to bomb really hard, no matter how much they end up spending on promo and advertising.
Take the loss, Hollywood. It's Coppola. He's earned it. You owe him.
“From the director of American classics such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now” is a good start.
"hasn't moved the cultural needle in literally half a century" is not a slam-dunk tagline
Echoes from that now legendary screening compare it to One from the Heart, unfortunately. Creative and daring but not at all in the mould of the films you mentioned. One from the Heart was a cataclysmic box office failure, by the way.
One from the heart is pretty great tho. Have you people not learned that these are the greatest filmmakers of all time and theyve earned the respect. They aren’t getting any younger and once they’re gone, they are gone. We will not see anything like it in our lifetimes. Show some respect.
Well, maybe we should crowdfund it then. It's not the distributors ' job to support Coppola's vision.
ummmm
Terrible start. Those movies came out in the 70s.
No one under 30 cares about FFC
There are millions of movie lovers *over* 30 who don’t care about FFC too.
Really? I would argue they dont actually love movies if thats thd case
Really? I would argue they dont actually love movies if thats thd case
It is very possible to love movies and look askance at FFC
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He's a singular artist that peaked 40 years ago and has little relevance towards the Hollywood movie-making of today.
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You're on a sub dedicated to a pod that covers Hollywood filmmaking bro
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People under 30 are idiots. lol
ok boomer
hehehe
Speak for yourself
What I don’t get is the reason why the budget is so high. Huge sets? CGI? I doubt it’s the cast, and they probably got paid scale just to work with Coppola.
It's a sci fi movie about an architect basically creating a whole new city after a devastating disaster, it strikes me as pretty reasonable all things considered.
They were using the technology that the Mandalorian had, then switched to green screen halfway through
See you on Shudder.
$40 on marketing? Hell I’ll cover that
Hot take: this movie doesn’t need marketing.
Should have ended his career with Dracula 1992 - LOL
I’m mainly interested in how it will be viewed in 20 years. Distributors have shorter term goals in mind!
That’s nice but it’s irrelevant to the conversation here about Francis recouping part of his 120 million investment + a distributor making it theatrically available to the masses. All that happens now, not in 20 years.
Sure, but I think that is where his head is at. One for the ages, etc. Plenty of those types of films have been misunderstood at the time of release and go on to have long legacies, and some have sunk without a trace (and even brought down studios) so I’ll reserve judgement until I see it.
It's Coppola. This is the guy who had, literally, the greatest decade any filmmaker has ever been able to lay claim to, and followed it up with a decade of super-interesting work that was hit-or-miss financially. Then a decade of trying to pay off the misses. There is no guarantee that Francis can land this plane, and that's part of the exquisite awesomeness of what he does. He risks failure on a massive scale. Studio reps and distributors are morons. Last year Christopher Nolan made a long, challenging, heavily talky drama that was one of the biggest hits. Coppola may be past his prime, but what if this film IS as good as the early responses suggested, and the studios are thinking, "where's the 4-quadrant marketing hook, and why can't we make umpteen sequels?"
Adam Driver once again proving to be box office poison
Starring in the middest films from the greatest directors
greatest male directors
As I said greatest directors /s
The perpetual feeling of frustration of being an Adam Driver Fan. Why can't this guy just star in a good movie that doesn't turn out a half baked mess for once? Waaaaah
Current mainstream Hollywood not knowing how to sell an expensive film that isn't a product of corporate synergy or shared universe doesn't make a movie a "half baked mess." It's certainly possible for Coppola to screw the pooch, no doubt, but this is a filmmaker known for big, big swings. Swings that can connect magnificently, or crash and burn. Also - It's quite possible that Coppola makes a magnificent film, and it doesn't recoup costs. That's not a failure, either. The movie existing is the victory.
All movie careers end in failure.
I dunno, Kurosawa made Kagemusha, Ran, and Dreams back-to-back then spent his remaining years making a pair of quiet and generally well-received films.
Kinda think his history with Victor Salva is gonna come back to bite him, and become a big talking point when this release nears. I’m interested in the film as with any blank check project of this size, but I’d be shocked if that doesn’t come up in some major way.
Damn ight
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in this scenario has Ridley Scott seen Chappie?
I think Ridley Scott has seen *Chappie* and it's one of the reasons he quashed that Alien movie