Now that Megalopolis has made its disaster official, what can we learn from it all?

Weeks ago, the news broke that Megalopolis had passed a milestone in its theatrical run, topping the $10 million mark at the Box-Office. A figure far (far!) below the expectations of those who had tried to highlight Coppola‘s attempt to offer a cinematic spectacle very different from those to which we are accustomed today.

It’s hard to discern any nuance in this rather brutal commercial failure, given that the current $11 million seems so far removed from the $120 million spent by the filmmaker to produce his film. But I think it’s futile to look at Megalopolis‘ success through the prism of its commercial success, because anyone who took an interest in Coppola’s project and its release more or less suspected that it would fail miserably.

I think it’s more interesting to look at Megalopolis through the prism of Coppola’s career. A career that, spread over fifty years, has had its great highs, and its great lows. But one thing has remained unchanged: no matter what Coppola’s films have been, or how much freedom he’s been able to achieve on his projects, the filmmaker always puts a part of himself into his films.

Whether it’s Twixt, Apocalypse Now or Dracula, the filmmaker has always had the urge to offer an original, immensely creative film, in which it’s undeniable that he leaves a little bit of himself behind every time. With the involvement of his family in the film’s production, or the use of a tragic event in his life as a narrative element, which we find in Twixt.

Megalopolis thus perfectly joins this lineage of films with an often muddled, but distinctly creative approach. Once again, the theme of family is at the heart of the story, and Coppola’s exceptional contribution to the film’s budget easily represents the filmmaker’s determination and personal touch, present in all his works.

To treat Megalopolis as just another blockbuster flop would be to overlook or even denigrate the film’s determination to offer something different. Giving a score to Coppola’s latest film is an impossible task, but isn’t that also what makes it so interesting?