Coppola Sells His Private Island After Megalopolis Box Office Failure
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Francis Ford Coppola has sold his private island in Belize for $1.8 million following the financial loss of his film Megalopolis. The Oscar-winning director invested $120 million of his own money into the production, but the epic, star-studded film flopped at the box office, earning only $14.4 million worldwide.
The island, stretching eight miles long, is located in an area known as Coral Caye, about 25 minutes by boat from the mainland. The Godfather director had been leasing it for the past nine years. Peter McLean of The Corcoran Group told Mansion Global: “Mr. Coppola was very upset when his lease ended. He cherished this tropical paradise during his time there, and it held a very special place in his heart.”
Megalopolis stars Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Jon Voight, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Just days before its debut, Coppola faced sexual misconduct allegations, and critics reacted poorly to the film. For months after Cannes, Megalopolis had no U.S. distributor.
At Cannes 2024, Coppola said he was not concerned about the film’s commercial failure:
“Money doesn’t matter. What matters are friends. A friend will never let you down. Money can disappear.”
In March, he confirmed that he had gone bankrupt:
“I have no money, because I used every bit of capital I could borrow to make Megalopolis. It’s all gone, really. I think it will come back over the next fifteen or twenty years, but right now, I have nothing.”
The Apocalypse Now director had previously been forced to sell several of his expensive watches.
