this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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Budget: $120 million [source]

Opening weekend gross: $4 million

Factoring in marketing costs and the theaters taking their cut of the profits, Megalopolis would need to make at least $300 million to break even. I think it's safe to say that's not happening.

It would have been THE worst opening for a $100 million movie ever, had it not been for Pluto Nash's horriffic opening 22 years ago.

Even The New York Times is reporting near-empty screenings of Megalopolis!

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[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The trailer made it seem like the kind of pretentiously boring mess that the director seemed to think had some profound message that I tend to really dislike.

Or put more simply, "Looks like the director set $120 million on fire to win Oscars, not make something entertaining."

[–] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

From what I'm hearing, one of the antagonists is a thinly veiled Rupert Murdoch. Sounds like $120 million to pretentiously explain that Fox News is bad to an audience who figured that out two decades ago.

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 27 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I still don't know if it was overly pretentious garbage or an enlightening allegory of the current state of the world. But watching it was definitely an experience. The cast is great, and I found it visually beautiful and interesting.

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[–] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It got a lot of controversial press before its release and I can't really recall hearing what the movie is about or it being any good.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago

Something something new Rome something something super powers that are useless something something the end

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago
[–] Antaeus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

The one, the only.

[–] thessnake03@lemmy.world 73 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Even adjusting for inflation, Pluto Nash still wins. It opened to $3.5M in today's money.

I feel like there hasn't been much marketing for Megalopolis. Could be a factor. I'd say the long run time doesn't help, but Oppenheimer counters that point.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah I never heard of this.

[–] brap@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Agreed, not heard of it outside Lemmy. Perhaps I’ve insulated myself from ads a little too well.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 10 points 1 day ago

I've mostly heard about the controversies (the fake AI quotes in the trailer, some alleged #metoo stuff on set, ...). Reviews seem very mixed, some reviewers hate it, others love it, which makes me think some of them just don't 'get' it?

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah but usually if something is good, people will want to discuss it. This has gotten no hype, no post release discussion. It's a ghost.

Really odd for such a big budget movie.

[–] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I only heard about this because Coppola gave an interview about hiring "cancelled" actors so he didn't seem "woke".

Yeah no thanks, FFC. I still remember you defending and bankrolling a CONVICTED child predator.

[–] Kellamity@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago

Coppola was heavily involved in the production of the film where some of the abuse happened, and during the fallout he allegedly tried to sue the victim of the abuse for breach of contract

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

aubrey plaza was on the daily show talking about it, so i assume they were doing the usual TV talk show tour.

[–] Aphelion@lemm.ee -5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Yes, and she was so uncomfortable, nervous and fidgety the whole interview that I'm convinced there's much more dirt on Coppola and his behavior on set that's waiting to surface. She might as well have been wearing a T-shirt that said "Please don't ask me anything about the production of this movie so I don't get sued". It was genuinely painful to watch.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

I think you're reading into a tv interview way too much.

[–] Kolrami@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Watch her other interviews. She's always nervous and fidgety. She claims she gets uncomfortable doing those staged interviews for press circuits.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oppenheimer had the advantage of people knowing basically what the story was about. The poster for Megalopolis doesn't really tell me what it's about beyond Adam Driver apparently being an architect.

It's the same reason everything is a reboot or remake: A lot of the marketing cost has already been taken care of with the first movie.

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[–] Sabin10@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is the second time I have heard about this film, the last time being the release of the first teaser trailer. Studios love to spend 70 million marketing budgets on broadcast TV advertising and completely missing their target audience. In the case of sci-fi, most of us are more responsive to online marketing campaigns and this film has the online presence of an Amish priest.

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[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 71 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Literally never heard this movie was being made except for 2 posts here, both of which happened after the movie opened in theaters. Marketing team obviously wasn't doing shit.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago

Considering he had to finance everything himself, there wasn't a ton of marketing and it's a very controversial movie (in the sense that no one wanted to help him with financing/releasing it)

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[–] mostNONheinous@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Maybe if the trailer didn’t tell you how great and misunderstood Coppola and his works have been and how stupid people were for panning them when they came out, more people would have been compelled to see it. Not that it was pretentious, just arrogant to say hey come watch this this sure fire masterpiece. Also it looks like politics mixed with Inception so maybe too much for people to bother right now? Having said all that I would like to see it, just don’t need to go to the theater for this one.

[–] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Having said all that I would like to see it, just don’t need to go to the theater for this one.

From what little I've heard, there's a 4th-wall-breaking scene that involves one of the characters interacting with an audience member (the theater apparently has someone come in and participate). So if nothing else, I guess you could see it in theaters for the novelty?

Ah, so from what I'm reading it's confusing now, but will be more confusing at home with a broken 4th wall break segment.

[–] Sylence@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago

They had this at the screening I went to. I wonder what they'll do for the home release version?

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 16 points 1 day ago

If I wait for the Torrent release an FBI agent is going to come to my house for that?

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[–] Soup@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Also, if your paraphrasing is accurate and we’re not playing a game of telephone here, regardless of how past experiences were later treated that’s kinda like saying “you’ll probably hate this unless you’re the kind of person who’ll still only appreciate it once a few critics tell you to in a few years.”

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[–] count_dongulus@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Pretty sad, this was apparently Coppola's drram movie he always wanted to make

[–] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 day ago (5 children)

It's bad. It's bad and we've been knowing this for months, as it premiered in some festival.

It's so bad no distributors wanted any piece of the cake (because the necessary costs are astronomical).

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I wonder if it's any good, all I hear is how little money it made like that means anything to anyone but the producers.

[–] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's bad. If it was good, the story would have been pretty different.

Obviously some people will still like it. But even those will have to admit it's an incredible mess, and it shows why no company wanted to invest in it.

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

https://wikiless.chaosmos.io/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films?lang=en

Clearly /s

My money is still on it being a masterpiece and people being morons.

Edit: updated wikiless instance

[–] Sylence@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago

I saw it hoping this was the case, but sadly it's just not very good. I loved the visuals, the ambition, and his commitment to try and breakout of traditional storytelling methods, but the ham-fisted handling of the subject matter really ruined it for me. By all means see it for yourself and be your own judge but I wouldn't go in expecting an underrated masterpiece.

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its annoyingly complex with little payoff. i know watching it a few times will bring it into focus, but thats a weird requirement.

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[–] Pjonathan@lemmy.world 32 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

This is the first time I'm hearing about this movie, likely terrible advertising plan

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[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 29 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Are these Studios just getting ripped off by marketing? I literally never saw an ad for this. The first time I saw a trailer for this film was in an article about how bad it was bombing. Where was all the marketing money going?

[–] roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Every second or third post on Lemmy is about privacy or ad-blocking or piracy or pi-holes or bitching about ad injection.

Not that any of that is a bad thing. (The bitching isn't bad, the things are.)

But you can't be surprised when you don't hear about shit. When you reclaim your eye-holes from Madison avenue you need to seek things out.

[–] CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Promotional campaign brought to you by the same team that worked on Concord.

[–] blarth@thelemmy.club 7 points 1 day ago

No shit, had seen only one weird trailer for this movie before it came out.

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