“Megalopolis,” a $120 million budgeted sci-fi movie shot in metro Atlanta, is seeing weak demand as it opens on 1,700 screens this weekend.
Thursday night previews drew about $770,000. Box office analysts said the movie, which stars Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito and Aubrey Plaza, is expected to pull in $5 million to $7 million opening weekend, which means the likelihood of the movie generating a profit is slim. Those estimates are also based in part on surveys that track audience interest.
Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary filmmaker known for “The Godfather” trilogy and “Apocalypse Now,” gambled all his own money to create the movie, which was shot entirely in Georgia. He liked metro Atlanta so much he did all post production here as well. He then turned a former Days Inn where he worked into a hybrid resort and postproduction facility in Peachtree City. He sold part of his wine estate to raise funds for the movie.
Critics are giving the movie a mixed reception with a 50% Rotten Tomatoes rating. But it did receive a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival in May.
The premise is definitely off beat, described as a Roman epic in a reimagined modern America. In the City of New Rome, Cesar Catilina (Driver), a genius artist, seeks to turn the city into an idealistic utopia while his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Esposito), remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves. Jon Voight plays a wealthy buffoon and Shia LaBeouf spends a large part of the film in drag. Plaza plays a wildly ambitious reporter.
The New York Times described “Megalopolis” as an “avant-garde, dystopian, science-fiction fable that veers into satire, fever dream, mystery, romance and comedy.”
The Rotten Tomatoes consensus: “More of a creative manifesto than a cogent narrative feature, Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ is an overstuffed opus that’s equal parts stimulating and slapdash.”
While Coppola self-funded the movie, Lionsgate is doing the promotion and distribution. An early trailer featured negative critics’ quotes of past Coppola films, except it was quickly discovered that the quotes were fake. Lionsgate apologized. Coppola himself has been the target of a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment on set, which he denies.
About the Author
