Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images
- Francis Ford Coppola is auctioning luxury watches from his personal collection.
- Coppola invested over $100 million in “Megalopolis,” which underperformed at the box office and left him broke.
- “I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” Coppola told The New York Times.
After selling two of his vineyards to help finance his passion project “Megalopolis,” director Francis Ford Coppola is auctioning off some of his personal possessions to make ends meet.
The legendary filmmaker behind “The Godfather” movies and “Apocalypse Now” took a major gamble when he invested over $100 million of his own money to self-finance his latest movie, “Megalopolis.” But with the movie only generating just over $14 million worldwide since it opened in theaters last September, he’s looking for cash to recoup his losses.
The answer? Auctioning seven of his luxury watches, including one Coppola designed himself that retails at $1 million, according to The New York Times.
“I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” Coppola, 86, told the Times. The auction will be done through Phillips, an auction site that specializes in watches, on December 6.
The most exclusive watch Coppola is selling is one he designed himself in collaboration with F.P. Journe, a Swiss watch company. Instead of conventional clock hands, the center features a glove hand. The fingers disappear and reappear in various configurations depending on the hour. It retails for $1 million.
The other watches include two Patek Phillipes, a Blancpain Minute Repeater, an IWC Chronograph, a different F.P. Journe, and a Breguet Classique. All range in estimated prices from $3,000 to $240,000.
Lionsgate Films
Another path to recouping some of his money is licensing “Megalopolis” to streaming platforms, but Coppola has been reluctant to take that option, believing his epic sci-fi tale set in a futuristic New York City needs to be seen in theaters.
“Many of my films earn out over time,” Coppola told the paper, citing another gamble he took decades ago when he self-financed most of “Apocalypse Now.” That movie, now considered a classic, has gone on to sell millions of tickets, Coppola said.
The difference is, along with movie tickets, “Apocalypse Now” also generated revenue for Coppola through sales of physical copies in different viewing formats, from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray. Those avenues are either extinct or significantly less profitable today, so they likely won’t play a major role in helping “Megalopolis” get in the black.
Since the release of “Megalopolis,” Coppola has told various publications he is broke despite being in preproduction on his next movie, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, “The Glimpses of the Moon.”
“I don’t have any money because I invested all the money that I borrowed to make ‘Megalopolis,'” he said on the podcast “Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin” in March. “It’s basically gone. I think it will come back over 15-20 years.”
A rep for Coppola did not respond to requests for comment.
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