Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is reportedly struggling to find a distributor.
Megalopolis, the latest film from Coppola that stars Adam Driver, was screened at the Universal CityWalk Imax theater on March 28, 2024.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, representatives from a number of potential distributors — Warner Bros., Disney, Netflix, and Paramount — attended the screening; however, the film, which was largely funded by Coppola, hasn’t locked down a distributor as of yet.
Why is Megalopolis struggling to find a distributor?
One distributor told The Hollywood Reporter, “There is just no way to position this movie.” Another attendee said, “Everyone is rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic. But then there is the business side of things.”
A third source who saw the film commented, “Does it wobble, wander, go all over the place? Yes. But it’s really imaginative and does say something about our time. I think it’s going to be a small, specialized label [that picks it up].”
The problem, however, is that a smaller label like A24 or Neon likely wouldn’t have the budget to promote the film in the way Coppola wants. “One source tells THR that Coppola assumed he would make a deal very quickly, and that a studio would happily commit to a massive P&A (prints and advertising, including all marketing) spend in the vicinity of $40 million domestically, and $80 million to $100 million globally,” the article reads.
One distribution veteran also noted that studios may be more interested in picking up Megalopolis if Coppola was willing to “put up the P&A or backstop the spend.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s sources further agreed that the film will likely be a “hard sell to a wide audience.”
Along with Driver, Megalopolis stars Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Kathryn Hunter, and more.
Plot details remain largely under wraps, though the film is said to revolve around “the rebuilding of a metropolis after its accidental destruction,” with Driver and Esposito’s characters having conflicting visions regarding how that rebuilding should be handled.
Megalopolis does not have a distributor at this time and, therefore, no release date has yet been set.
