“The Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola is selling off several luxury watches from his personal collection, including one custom timepiece worth over $1 million, after losing most of his wealth financing his decades-long passion project, “Megalopolis.”
The 86-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker reportedly invested $120 million of his own fortune into making the epic science fiction movie, which only grossed $14.3 million at the worldwide box office after it was released in September 2024.
According to the New York Times, Coppola has also openly admitted that the movie left him broke.
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Now, seven of Coppola’s prized watches will be up for sale on Dec. 6 and 7 at Phillips auction house in New York City.
“I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” he told the New York Times last Friday, one day after Phillips, which specializes in luxury watches, announced the sale.
The auction will include Coppola’s one-of-a-kind watch, the F.P. Journe FFC Prototype, which is estimated to start at over $1 million and slated to headline the sale.
The timepiece was designed by Coppola himself in collaboration with master watchmaker François-Paul Journe over the course of eight years.
The other six other luxury watches from Coppola’s personal collection include another F.P. Journe, two Patek Philippes, a Breguet Classique, an IWC Portugieser Chronograph, and a Blancpain Minute Repeater.
Meanwhile, Coppola said he rarely wore the FFC, telling the Times that the timepiece was too expensive to insure.
“I only wore it a handful of times,” Coppola said.
One of those times was at the Cannes premiere of “Megalopolis,” which he wrote, directed and produced.
The movie featured an ensemble cast led by Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, and Nathalie Emmanuel, alongside Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, Chloe Fineman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter, and James Remar.
“The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina [Driver], a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero [Esposito], who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare,” reads the official synopsis for “Megalopolis.”
“Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero [Emmanuel], the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves,” it added.
Aside from bombing at the box office, “Megalopolis” received a divided reaction from critics. Some lauded Coppola for his ambition and refusal to play it safe, but the praise was exceeded by criticism, with the movie being called incoherent and self-indulgent.
“Megalopolis” won two Razzies at the 45th Golden Raspberry Awards, including worst director for Coppola and worst supporting actor for Voight. Coppola jokingly accepted his award in an Instagram post while also slamming the film industry for being “gutless” and not taking chances on original ideas.
The five-time Oscar winner compared himself to French filmmaker Jacques Tati, who famously bankrupted himself making the 1967 movie “Playtime.” However, the satirical comedy was later hailed by many critics as one of the greatest films of all time.
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“What an honor to stand alongside a great and courageous filmmaker like Jacques Tati who impoverished himself completely to make one of cinema’s most beloved failures, PLAYTIME! My sincere thanks to all my brilliant colleagues who joined me to make our work of art, MEGALOPOLIS, and let us remind ourselves that box-office is only about money, and like war, stupidity and politics has no true place in our future.”
Coppola made his fortune primarily through the success of “The Godfather” trilogy and “Apocalypse Now.” He later expanded his wealth through business ventures, most notably his Napa Valley wineries, luxury resorts, and lifestyle brands, which became major sources of income outside filmmaking.
In 2021, the director sold his Coppola winery brand to Delicato Family Wines in a deal valued around $650 million. However, he leveraged his stake in the wine business and reportedly took out loans up to $200 million against it to fund “Megalopolis.”
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“I don’t have any money because I invested all the money, that I borrowed, to make ‘Megalopolis,’” he told music producer Rick Rubin during a March appearance on the “Tetragrammaton” podcast.
“It’s basically gone,” Coppola added. “I think it’ll come back over 15 or 20 years, but I don’t have it now.”
“Megalopolis” is widely considered Coppola’s biggest financial disaster, though the director’s high-risk filmmaking has led to other major losses.
His 1982 movie “One from the Heart” was previously his biggest loss. The film’s production cost around $26 million and earned just $637,355 at the box office — a catastrophic flop.
It was the first feature film produced by Zoetrope, which financed the project using bank loans, private investors and Coppola’s personal guarantees.
Originally set to be a romantic comedy with a modest budget of $2 million, Coppola’s vision for the movie greatly expanded during the production, which led to skyrocketing costs. He believed “One from the Heart” could revolutionize filmmaking through the use of pioneering technology including his “electronic cinema” process and prove that independent artists could rival Hollywood studios.
The financial hit from “One from the Heart” drove Zoetrope Studios into bankruptcy later that year. Coppola, who had invested millions of dollars from his real estate holdings into the movie, was left with major debt, which he spent years working to pay off. Through much of the 1980s, he had to direct more commercial movies to repay his loans.
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In 1988, Coppola suffered another financial setback due to his movie “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” which made $19 million against a $24 million budget. Though well-received by critics, it was another commercial disappointment that kept his financial recovery slow.
However, Coppola has consistently said that he prizes artistic achievement over money. During his appearance on the “Tetragrammaton” podcast, he acknowledged that he would have to make his next movie “very cheap” due to his losses from “Megalopolis.”
“As a director, I don’t care if I lose all the money I have,” he said. “I didn’t do this to make money, I did this to do something more beautiful than making money.”
During his interview with the NYT, Coppola said he believes that “Megalopolis” will eventually be profitable.
“Many of my films earn out over time,” he told the outlet.
Coppola pointed to his 1979 war movie “Apocalypse Now.” The film cost around $31 million to make, which was considered an enormous sum for the late 1970s and far exceeded its original $12 million budget.
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“Apocalypse Now” was a major hit with critics, winning two Academy Awards for best cinematography and best sound. It also received six other nominations, including best picture and best director.
Due to its massive budget, the film plunged Coppola and his studio Zoetrope Studios, which he co-founded with George Lucas, into major short-term debt. However, it was a box office success and later eventually earned a worldwide gross of $150 million through decades of new releases and home video.
Yet, “Megalopolis” is unlikely to become a major profit-maker on the scale of “Apocalypse Now,” which benefited from a different era of film economics, per Business Insider.
Unlike the home video boom in the 1980s and ’90s that helped films like “Apocalypse Now,” those revenue streams are much weaker today, which Coppola has acknowledged.
In addition, Coppola has not yet made the movie available on streaming platforms. In May, he told GQ that he was intentionally delayed streaming or physical release because the film “is still being shown in theaters,” and he doesn’t want viewers to “own it” yet.
He has also previously said that he is holding “Megalopolis” back from streaming because he felt it must be seen on the big screen with an audience as he intended when making it.
A few months after “Megalopolis” premiered, Coppola began telling people that he was broke, per the NYT.
During a press conference for “Megalopolis” at Cannes in May 2024, Coppola said he “never cared about money,” according to People magazine.
“I have no problems with the financials — also, another thing, my children, without exception, Sofia, Roman and my granddaughter Gia, they have wonderful careers without a fortune. They don’t need a fortune,” he said.
Coppola shared his son Roman, 59, and daughter Sofie, 53, with his late wife Eleanor, who died at the age of 87 in 2024.
The two were also parents to son Gian-Carlo who died at age 22 in a 1986 boating accident. Roman has worked as a second unit director on several of Coppola’s movies, including “Megalopolis” while Sofia is an Academy Award-winning director and producer.
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The director’s granddaughter Gia, who is the only child of Gian-Carlo and Jacquie de la Fontaine, is also a director whose recent films include 2024’s “The Last Showgirl.”
While speaking at Cannes, Coppola further explained his philosophy on money.
“It doesn’t matter … the money doesn’t matter,” he said, according to People.
“What’s important are friends,” Coppola added. “Because a friend will never let you down; money may evaporate.”
