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Can Lionsgate Recover From an Epic Run of Mega-Flops?

With six bombs in a row, the ‘Megalopolis’ distributor has leaned on foreign presales to paper over an astoundingly bad slate of 2024 movies. Thankfully, at least, the next year is looking up.

Megalopolis
Lionsgate can distribute a flop like Megalopolis without breaking a sweat, especially since Coppola paid for the releasing costs.  Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate
Scott Mendelson
October 1, 2024

There was no reason to expect Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis to perform any better than it did this past weekend, when the $120 million-budgeted, self-financed sci-fi opus opened to a paltry $4 million domestic in 1,854 theaters. The film had received head-scratching reviews at Cannes, despite a lengthy standing ovation that was obviously a nod to the 85-year-old director’s legacy and not what everyone had just seen. Coppola’s last unmitigated commercial success was Bram Stoker’s Dracula ($216 million on a $40 million budget) in November 1992. When all the big Hollywood studios passed on the distribution rights to Megalopolis, Lionsgate stepped up in a deal mainly about continuing an ongoing (mostly home video) relationship with the director.