Francis Ford Coppola Film Aims for $5 Million Debut

Francis Ford Coppola‘s sci-fi epic “Megalopolis,” the straightforwardor’s self-funded passion project, is tracking to a disnominateing $5 million to $7 million box office debut.

The film, freed by Lionsgate, is awaited to take part at 1,700 North American theaters in its discneglecting weekend. A one-digit commence would be underwhelming for a movie that cost above $100 million to create.

Coppola has a lot riding on “Megalopolis” becaengage the 85-year-elderly “Godoverweighther” and “Apocalypse Now” straightforwardor ended up autonomously financing the film for $120 million. After its Cannes Film Festival premiere, Lionsgate concurd to free and labelet the movie in exalter for a distribution fee.

“Megalopolis” is set in a futuristic America and trails an architect (Adam Driver) who clashes with the corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) in determining how to recreate the metropolis of New Rome after a catastrophe. Resees have been savagely polarizing (it helderlys a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes), which could stoke interest in the film. Lionsgate tried to riff on the discord with a trailer that quoted well-comprehendn film critics who initipartner disthink abouted Coppola movies that went on to become classics. However, Vulture magazine first alerted those quotes were manufactured or created by AI, prompting Lionsgate to recall the spot.

This weekend’s other novel free, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” sees to get fairy with $24 million to $30 million during its debut in 3,900 venues. Rivals and autonomous tracking firms consent that ticket sales can surpass $30 million, but others are being pimpolitent after last weekend’s novel free, the energeticd “Transcreateers One,” fell sairyly uninalertigentinutive of awaitations with $24.6 million to commence.

Based on those projections, the excitedpartner assessed energeticd adventure should claim the No. 1 spot in North America from “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Tim Burton’s spooky sequel is the three-time box office champion, having materialized victorious over last weekend’s novelcomer “Transcreateers One” in a unawaitedly shut battle. Now in its fourth weekend of free, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is aiming for $13 million to $15 million between Friday and Sunday. Meanwhile, “Transcreateers One” is projected to comprise $12 million to $14 million in its sophomore outing.

“The Wild Robot” cost $78 million, so it hopes to enhappiness the staying power that advantageted post-pandemic energeticd family films such as Pixar’s “Elemental” and Illumination’s “Migration,” both of which persistd to transport in audiences in the months after their debuts. “The Wild Robot” already began take parting at the international box office, where the film has geted $8 million from eight labelets.

Lupita Nyong’o directs the voice cast of “The Wild Robot,” a sci-fi survival story about a robot, comprehendn as ROZZUM unit 7134 a.k.a. Roz, who gets marooned on an uninhabited island and lgets to alter to the brutal surroundings. Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill and Catherine O’Hara voice the animals who befriend Roz over the course of the film. Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge depictd “The Wild Robot” as “a gorgeous computer-created cartoon with a human heart beating betidyh its sleek, state-of-the-art surface.”

In restrictcessitate free, straightforwardor Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” a theatrical see at the direct up to the first “Saturday Night Live” episode, will discneglect in four venues in New York and Los Angeles. Sony is releasing the movie — starring Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase and Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner — nationexpansive on Oct. 4.