Director extraordinaire Francis Ford Coppola has helmed some of the most influential films of all time, from the Godfather trilogy to Apocalypse Now. He’s not just an adept storyteller, but is also a thought-provoking filmmaker who attempts to start conversations with his work, and the same idea applies to Megalopolis. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a horror movie with an incredible ensemble cast, to The Rainmaker, a movie from the A-List director that doesn’t get enough love, Coppola never shies away from expansive storylines and personal narratives. However, none of his films have been as ambitious as his latest project.
Megalopolis, a sci-fi movie with an incredible ensemble cast, is Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited 2024 feature film, his first in nearly 15 years. After a 40-year-long fight to get it made, he finally produced, wrote, and directed his pᴀssion project last year. Unfortunately, it underperformed at the box office, struggling to make up more than 10% of its budget worldwide. There are those who saw the movie’s merits, but it was largely panned due to being seemingly too erratic to amount to anything substantial. However, if you want to make up your mind now, that’s no longer possible.
Megalopolis Isn’t Available To Stream Or Buy On Digital Or Blu-Ray
It will be impossible to watch without another theatrical release
There were quite a few surprise flops in 2024, but not all of them merit that tag, and among others, at least Megalopolis deserves re-ᴀssessment. However, that is practically impossible now except via foreign discs or the rare screening at a local theater. For reasons yet unclear, albeit possibly due to the poor performance at the box office, Lionsgate is not interested in releasing any 4K or Blu-ray copy of Megalopolis.
Even if that isn’t the reason, Megalopolis is yet to be released in physical media form, and this usually doesn’t take so long. Moreover, it has weirdly disappeared off all streaming platforms. Within just a couple of months of its theatrical release, the film had begun streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, but it’s missing on both platforms now. Prime Video claims that the rights are expired, and Apple TV bizarrely says it’s coming soon to streaming.
Megalopolis Being So Hard To Watch Could Help Or Hurt Francis Ford Coppola’s Movie
Every viewer deserves to make up their own mind
As is witnessed by the fame that many lost and forgotten oldie films enjoy, being hard to watch can often add an air of mystery to a movie. Irrespective of how it was received, a film that’s difficult to find is often treated as a mystical artifact worthy of reverence. However, it is rightfully contentious to argue that unavailability is helpful for a film, even one that flopped as poorly as Megalopolis did.
There are rumors that Coppola has been in talks with the Criterion Collection to add Megalopolis to their library, which might help the film since the crowd most likely to appreciate it commonly watches content from the Criterion Collection, but there has unfortunately not been any official announcement to confirm this.
The unfortunate reality is that the lack of streaming and physical options to watch Megalopolis hurts its reputation even more. The public opinion of the film is mostly based on word-of-mouth accounts by those who saw the movie in theaters and were disappointed. Its potential to become cult hit will never materialize if people don’t have a means to watch Coppola’s film. The Megalopolis reviews aren’t flattering enough for people’s interests to survive long enough to wait for whenever it eventually releases on streaming or Blu-ray.
