Francis Ford Coppola’s theatrical return may not be as triumphant as his fans, or Lionsgate, had hoped, as early tracking for Megalopolis suggest disastrous pre-sale figures. The upcoming film has been a major gamble for Coppola and for Lionsgate. The director (who has famously self-funded most of his movies) has reportedly sunk well over $100 million into the movie’s production, while Lionsgate has covered most of the marketing costs.
According to BoxOfficeTheory user TheFlatLannister, who has tracked the pre-sale figures for Megalopolis, Coppola’s latest will be far from his greatest at the box office. Of 160 pre-sale screenings tracked, only 249 seats have been sold from a total of 30,118 seats. While a student film would kill for those numbers, they make up 0.83% of all tickets available, leaving Megalopolis in a potentially disastrous position. TheFlatLannister described Megalopolis as “The worst presales start I have ever tracked… Wow.” They went on to say they “Probably won’t be tracking this. Completely pointless.”
TheFlatLannister also tracked audience awareness of Megalopolis. According to the data, only 18% of audiences are aware of the movie, a figure which is akin to the indie horror-movie Bagman, and far removed from a multi-million dollar blockbuster.
Lionsgate Is Having a Troubling 2024
The studio behind massive blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises, among many other hits, have struggled to hit the mark at the box office this year. While the on-the-day figures for Megalopolis will be revealed when the movie hits theaters on September 27, the studio has already had two movies bomb this year.
Eli Roth’s Borderlands film was slated by audiences and critics, with some joking that it re-instated the video game curse. The movie opened to a measly $8.6 million in its opening weekend, which dropped to just $2.35 million in the second week (marking the biggest second-week drop of any 2024 movie). This is against a reported budget of between $110-120 million. Borderlands‘s box office failure has killed any chances of a potential sequel or franchise. Just a few weeks later, Lionsgate incurred similar losses following the theatrical release of The Crow, a remake of the cult 1994 flick, this time starring Alexander Skarsgård. The Crow has grossed a worldwide total of $21.1 million since its theatrical release. Following its poor theatrical run, The Crow is already available to stream on VOD.
Unfortunately for fans of Francis Ford Coppola, the early projections are just another stain on Megalopolis‘s theatrical build up. The movie has been faced with several controversies already, which will likely dampen the movie’s actual box office results. A video was released online by Variety showing Coppola attempting to kiss an extra during production, and the director is now suing the publication for $15 million. Lionsgate has also had to find a new marketing team for the movie after a trailer was released featuring AI-generated fake reviews for Coppola’s past movies, including Apocalypse Now and The Godfather.
Megalopolis
releases in theaters on September 27, 2024.