Francis Ford Coppola is, apparently, broke Or so he says, which is why he started selling his watches

There are some names in the film industry considered untouchable, surrounded by an aura of solemnity unlike any other. Francis Ford Coppola is perhaps at the very top of that pyramid, regarded by many as the greatest director of all time. The actual father of Sofia Coppola and the conceptual father of projects such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Italian-American filmmaker seems to be facing some financial troubles. For that reason, he has decided to auction off some of the rarest watches from his personal collection.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Watch Auction

According to the New York Times, Coppola admitted that he is currently going through a complicated financial phase, due to the exorbitant costs of his latest film, Megalopolis. Shot almost entirely with his own funds and production estimates exceeding $100 million, the project failed to deliver the expected results: with a global gross of around $14 million, the film has become yet another chapter in the director’s long history of artistic passion and financial ruin. As he himself explained, “I need some money to keep the ship afloat,” an image that perfectly sums up the current state of a man who has always sailed at the edge of creative and financial risk.

Among the items up for sale are some highly valuable models, including two Patek Philippes, a Blancpain and an IWC, as well as a timepiece Coppola personally co-designed in 2014 with the Swiss maison F.P. Journe. The model, called FFC, is a unique piece worth around one million dollars, featuring an open-worked dial where a mechanical hand indicates the hours through the movement of its fingers. According to the auction house Phillips, which will handle the sale on December 6, the starting price will be just above one million dollars — a figure that, ironically, represents less than one percent of the *Megalopolis* budget.

The Film Industry Today

Though the story may sound somewhat satirical — or rather, tragicomical — it is, in fact, a rather accurate reflection of Hollywood today. A crisis so pervasive that even one of the most legendary names in cinema finds himself selling personal belongings just to keep going. Of course, it must be said that the passion project that was *Megalopolis* not only failed to meet the director’s expectations but also became part of a much larger trend within the contemporary entertainment industry.

Because of streaming platforms, audiences — already plagued by an almost non-existent attention span — are increasingly less motivated to physically go to the cinema. Movie theaters have now become a niche space, a kind of mecca for enthusiasts, but no longer a common option for spending a Saturday night.

And like Megalopolis, many other titles — from the major franchises such as Marvel and Mission: Impossible — which only five years ago would have broken box office records — to projects by beloved directors like Wes Anderson or Bong Joon-ho, have failed to reach the break-even point, or have done so with margins so slim they can hardly be considered a true profit. Could Coppola’s case be the last stand of cinema as we know it?