The Megalopolis Discourse Is, Appropriately, Mega Weird

Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola’s modern epic starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel and more, released just a few days ago and it’s already being dubbed a “box office bomb” and sparking a ton of internet conversations about Hollywood, risky movies, and more.

The visually impressive film from the acclaimed director behind films like The Godfather and Bram Stoker’s Dracula was stirring up conversation long before it debuted on September 27, thanks in large part to the director saying last month that he cast “cancelled” actors like Jon Voight (an outspoken Trump supporter and a jerk to his own daughter, Angelina Jolie) and Shia LaBeouf (accused of sexual assault in 2021, with a court date TBD) to avoid Megalopolis getting labelled a “woke Hollywood” movie. Now that the film is out, however, the discourse around it has shifted, with people posting clips from the movie to highlight its rather unorthodox tone and reports surfacing that it’s playing to mostly empty theaters around the country.

Megalopolis was always going to be a polarizing movie—it’s clear that the epic is meant to defy genre classifications, push the boundaries of visual effects, and pose some rather heady questions about the future of the United States, the bounds of creativity, the ego of the artist, the perceived passage of time, Hollywood’s aversion to risk, and more. The film has been called “too weird for words,” a “wild fever dream of excess and idealism,” a “catastrophe,” and a “passion project without passion.”

Recent reports are saying that the massively expensive endeavor, which cost around $140 million in marketing and production costs, funded in part by Coppola selling some of his wine estate, made just $4 million in its opening weekend. The New York Times says that the film is “on pace to place sixth in the weekend box office derby, behind even Devara Part 1, a poorly reviewed, three-hour, Telugu-language action drama” and that it’s playing to “near-empty theaters.”

Despite its poor box office performance, the internet can’t stop talking about Megalopolis. People are astounded by a scene in which Adam Driver says “go back to the club” with a strange accent and also says “yes” in increasingly more Foghorn Leghorn ways.

Viewers are baffled by the dialogue and bemused by the architecture depicted in the film, with some making visual comparisons to the Star Wars prequels.

Some are angry about a plot point in which a woman lies about her sexual assault, while others are bringing up the lawsuit filed against Coppola by a Megalopolis extra.

The conversations around the film are impassioned, varied, and intense. The Letterboxd reviews are all over the place. At the time of writing, it’s got a 49% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 34% audience score. People either love this film or hate it, admire Coppola or despise him, believe it’s either a masterpiece or a complete flop—but one thing is for certain: no one can stop talking about Megalopolis. Should I go see it?

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