According to Deadline, Megalopolis returns to theaters October 24 in a limited run from New York to Hawaii, with the audience texting questions to Francis Ford Coppola and him answering the best ones live.
The $120 million self financed epic that took in $14 million is getting what the box office refused to give it. A marketing department. The October 24 run is not a re release. It is an event. Every seat comes with a hardcopy letter containing the official director's statement, the infamous Live Element returns, and the director answers the best of the questions your phone sends in, moderated by his son Roman, who second unit directed the film.
The PR move is to make the flop sound like the cult. The A.V. Club did the box office math, and the math is still bad, so the new ticket has to feel like an experience. You could not have had this in 2024. You had a movie. Now you have a letter, a text line and a Q&A, which is the difference between a screening and a séance.
Coppola's statement to Deadline says the film is back where it belongs, in theaters, with interest growing. The interest that is growing is the interest that skipped the first run, and the fix is not the film. The film does not change. The ceremony does, and the plan is to repeat it every New Year's Day as a tradition, which is the theatrical equivalent of a subscription box.
YOUR TURN: You get to text Coppola a question before, during and after the film. What is the question, and what do you think he will actually answer?
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