Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi epic Megalopolis is having a rough ride at the cinema box office, with people online labelling it ‘Megaflopolis’.
READ MORE: ‘Megalopolis’ review: as mad and memorable as everyone is saying
The film was released in cinemas on Friday (September 27), and is set in an alternate present-day version of America, where Driver’s futuristic architect Cesar Catilina, who has the ability to pause time, is clashing with the conservative mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).
It has been met with less-than-enthusiastic reviews and received a somewhat hostile premiere at Cannes. In NME’s two-star review of Megalopolis, Lou Thomas wrote: “The whole piece is so uneven, that at times it’s akin to watching a toddler being given free rein as an interior decorator. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you always should.”
On its opening weekend at the US box office, the film, which was made for a budget of $120million (£90million), brought in just $4million (£3million) and landed in sixth place.
And now, the term #MegaFLOPolis has been trending on X, with some apparently revelling in the film’s disastrous box office numbers.
One X user likened the film to being “like listening to two guys trying to pitch a film with every idea they’ve ever had while wiping their noses, attempting to hide cocaine they just did in the bathroom.”
James & Maseau describing #Megalopolis is like listening to two guys trying to pitch a film with every idea they’ve ever had while wiping their noses, attempting to hide cocaine they just did in the bathroom. #WeeklyPlanetPod #Megaflopolis
— Greg Bach (@iamgregbach) September 30, 2024
See some other reactions to the film’s struggles below:
#Megalopolis and its $120M budget BOMB with $4M debut
Cementing its forever #Megaflopolis retitle
— Erick 𝕄𝕄𝕋 Weber (@ErickWeber) September 29, 2024
Imagine being the director of The Godfather and your new movie gets beat by an animated Masterpiece. #TheWildRobot #MegaFLOPolis pic.twitter.com/5hufNjVSDO
— Jeffrey Mahoney (Wild Robot/Joker/Penguin/ Era) (@JeffreyMahone18) September 30, 2024
#Megaflopolis pic.twitter.com/IxkFjTgfyd
— Adriano Not TIFF Caporusso (@AdriCaporusso) May 16, 2024
Saw #megalopolis Saturday night. Baffled. Returned Sunday to see if it made more sense a second time around. Understood even less.
Megalopolis? More like #Megaflopolis, amirite? pic.twitter.com/6lUkybILct
— Miami Monger (@MiamiMonger) September 30, 2024
#Megalopolis more like #Megaflopolis My god, is so, so, sooooooo bad… I wanted to die for the whole 2+ hours pic.twitter.com/RS5N8J8osL
— Mr.Floppy (@MrFloppy) September 28, 2024
The $120M+ #Megalopolis builds just $1.8M Friday, weekend sub-$5M#Megaflopolis it officially is pic.twitter.com/Z2Eben7L0q
— Erick 𝕄𝕄𝕋 Weber (@ErickWeber) September 28, 2024
It’s perfectly fine if you enjoyed it, really, but some of y’all defending #Megalopolis are just making me think of this pic.twitter.com/yNINTitQbe
— Cody Dearman (@CodyDearman) September 30, 2024
I saw #Megalopolis last night and it’s bad (so very, very bad) in the way that movies are so seldom bad any more. Would be pointless me reviewing it because I can’t articulate in words what’s so weird and terrible about it. You have to see it to understand. Sorry. pic.twitter.com/TTGMWqzLbJ
— Tom Beasley (@TomJBeasley) October 1, 2024
#FilmTwitter after watching #Megalopolis : pic.twitter.com/h3Eqy3RfYq
— Pete Pasadena (@PetePasadena) September 29, 2024
People going to see #Megalopolis this weekend: pic.twitter.com/jyFxur1lny
— Americana at Brand Memes (@americanamemes) September 27, 2024
Line read of the year. #Megalopolis pic.twitter.com/3NHJxhXDc2
— Shaurya Chawla (@_ShauryaChawla) September 28, 2024
Megalopolis has been a passion project for the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now since the early 1980s, but has continually been faced with financial challenges. With major studios hesitant to invest, Coppola eventually chose to fund the film himself, selling personal assets, including portions of his wine empire.
The project has been riddled with controversies, with an extra from the film saying she was left “in shock” after being kissed by Coppola on the set, and a trailer that included fake quotes from critics leading to a marketing consultant being fired.
The post “Megaflopolis”: the internet is loving Francis Ford Coppola’s box office dud appeared first on NME.
