Now that opening weekend has concluded, things are looking undeniably grim for Francis Ford Coppola’s, Megalopolis. Early projections had Megalopolis as one of the biggest box office flops of the year, and now that the numbers are in, things are even worse than anyone could have predicted. The film opened to a measly $4 million worldwide on a budget of $120 million, meaning it would have needed to earn 30x more than it did during its first few days in theaters to break even. Borderlands had largely been considered the biggest box office flop of the year prior to Megalopolis, grossing only $32 million total on a budget of roughly $115 million and starting with only $8 million during the opening weekend. This means Coppola’s passion project failed to earn even half of Borderlands’ opening weekend total.
Except movies like Elemental, which opened to measly totals but good reviews and word-of-mouth marketing led to extraordinary legs at the box office, most movies rely on the opening weekend to earn a good chunk of what will end up being their final total. With a poor marketing campaign that has essentially amounted to a couple of trailers and poor reviews leading to the film landing at “rotten” scores of 49% from critics and 34% from general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s hard to picture a world where Megalopolis turns into anything more than a colossal box office failure. The only hope for the film lies in its star power, featuring performances from Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Jason Schwartzman, but even that will likely not prove effective in the long run.
What Are the Biggest Box Office Opening Weekends of 2024?
As you can probably guess, some of the highest-grossing movies of the year also opened to some of the biggest totals. Inside Out 2, which is currently the highest-grossing movie of the year at more than $1.6 billion, opened to $154 million domestically, nearly 39x Megalopolis’ total. However, Inside Out 2 doesn’t have the biggest domestic opening of the year, as that title belongs to the $1 billion-earning Deadpool & Wolverine, which opened to $211 million domestically and will finish its theatrical run with more than $1.4 billion worldwide. Dune: Part Two is in third place with a domestic opening weekend total of $82 million.
Megalopolis has currently grossed $4 million total on a budget of $120 million. Stay tuned to Collider for future box office updates on the film and find tickets below for a showtime near you.
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