Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project has picked up French distribution, meaning certain streamers are likely out of the running – but more could still be in with a shot.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis distribution saga rumbles on, with the Apocalypse Now director somewhat inexplicably struggling to find a home for his $120m passion project.
Yesterday, we reported that the film had managed to pick up French cinema distribution with Le Pacte – an important milestone, since a French theatrical release is required for a film to screen in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
As Variety points out, though, the Le Pacte deal does mean Netflix are unlikely to still be in the running to buy the film. France has a strict 15-month exclusivity window which prevents a film from heading straight from cinemas onto streaming services. Netflix, which remains a big fan of their simultaneous global release strategy, hasn’t debuted a film in competition at Cannes since the festival brought theatrical release in as a requirement in 2018.
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Other streamers don’t seem to have ruled themselves out just yet, though, with Variety suggesting Amazon and Apple both could still be interested. Apple in particular has form in this department, buying up similarly expensive auteur passion projects in the form of Napoleon and Killers Of The Flower Moon last year, handing theatrical distribution over to Sony and Paramount respectively.
Coppola has been seeking out a hefty $100m marketing spend for the film, which seems to have sent plenty of studios and streamers running for the hills. After a special screening earlier this month, one distributor told The Hollywood Reporter “there is just no way to position this movie“.
Megalopolis' Cannes screening is set for the 17th May 2025 – hopefully it’ll make its way to more cinemas soon afterwards.
