Francis Ford Coppola has dismissed the Trump administration’s newly announced tariff plan targeting foreign-made films and described a marked increase in theater attendance for Megalopolis, his $120 million self-funded feature that premiered in September 2024. In a new interview with GQ, the director linked the surge in interest to recent political events and reiterated his decision to keep the film out of digital circulation.
Coppola said audiences have filled screenings in cities including Boston and Detroit since Donald Trump returned to office. He credited the film’s themes for the renewed interest, noting that Megalopolis draws from Roman history to present a fictional vision of a declining republic set in a futuristic New York City. “Being that it was so prophetic or prescient to say America is like Rome—it’s going to maybe lose its republic—now people are rushing to see it in theaters,” Coppola said.
The film is not available for streaming or purchase, by design. “I don’t want anyone to own it,” he told GQ. “The film is still being shown in theaters.” An insider previously confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the theatrical-only model was central to the director’s approach.
First conceptualized in 1983, Megalopolis was intended as a long-term creative project. It was released to strong debate, met with harsh criticism and modest box office numbers. Global earnings reached $14.3 million, far below production costs. Coppola compared the reception to the initial reaction to Apocalypse Now. “That was a big flop, it got terrible reviews, everyone said it was the worst movie ever made. And yet people never stopped going to see it. The same thing is now happening with Megalopolis,” he said.
In recent public appearances, Coppola has drawn direct comparisons between the ancient Roman political system and the current state of U.S. governance. Speaking previously at the New York Film Festival, he described the film’s premise as a warning. “Today, America is Rome, and they’re about to go through the same experience, for the same reasons that Rome lost its republic and ended up with an emperor,” he said. He pointed to the concentration of wealth and political influence in the U.S. legislature as a critical factor, stating, “Our senates and our representatives are all wealthy and manipulating their own power rather than running the country and then we’re in danger of losing it.”
In the same interview, Coppola addressed Trump’s proposed tariffs, which were announced last weekend. The plan would impose a 100 percent tariff on all foreign-produced films imported into the United States. The policy, according to statements on Trump’s social media platform, is intended to counteract international incentives that attract film production away from the U.S.
Coppola sharply opposed the measure. “No one I know thinks that this tariff philosophy— All it does is create uncertainty,” he said. He also addressed broader misconceptions around inflation during recent economic cycles. “People don’t understand that the economy in the previous administration? There was world inflation, there wasn’t [just] inflation in America. The entire world was going through a serious inflationary trend. But the country that did the best with it—and which other countries were jealous of—was the United States.”
According to Coppola, the policy threatens to close off a functioning system of international collaboration that previously helped fuel domestic prosperity. “These tariffs are like slamming the door closed on what was a very prosperous situation,” he said.
The proposed tariff action coincides with other recent U.S. productions that were filmed abroad, including Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Deadpool & Wolverine, Avengers: Doomsday, and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Supporters of the measure argue that the shift toward overseas locations harms local employment and reduces long-term studio investment in the domestic market.
Coppola did not directly address industry concerns around cost-saving strategies or the viability of smaller theatrical releases. Instead, he framed Megalopolis as a case of long-form artistic commitment that intersected, unintentionally, with a moment of political reflection. He reiterated that the film would remain a theatrical experience and repeated his stance against releasing it to platforms or retailers.
His statements arrive amid heightened discussion around U.S. cultural production, international cooperation, and the financial models that underpin major film projects. Coppola’s film, once viewed as an outlier, now finds itself at the center of debates that stretch beyond cinema into economics and national identity.