Coppola Auctions Watches After Movie Fizzles

'I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,' says director of Megalopolis
Posted Oct 30, 2025 1:43 PM CDT
Coppola Auctions Watches After Movie Fizzles
Francis Ford Coppola arrives at the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to him on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Francis Ford Coppola's latest film, Megalopolis, may have been a passion project decades in the making, but it appears to have left the legendary director in a financial crunch. The 85-year-old put up much of the financing for the $120 million sci-fi epic himself, but the movie fizzled at the box office—earning just over $14 million. Now Coppola is scrambling to cover costs, and he's turning to his personal watch collection to do so, reports Artnet.

Coppola is auctioning off seven timepieces at Phillips New York in December, and the star attraction is a one-of-a-kind watch he co-designed with luxury Swiss brand FP Journe. Dubbed the FFC, the watch replaces the traditional hand with a gloved mechanical hand, its fingers contorting to display the hour. It's expected to fetch more than $1 million. Coppola previously sold two California wineries to help fund Megalopolis, continuing a career-long pattern of rolling the dice on his artistic vision. As the New York Times notes, Apocalypse Now also put him in debt, at least initially.

The rest of the watches up for auction include two Patek Philippes, a Blancpain Minute Repeater, and some more accessible options like a Breguet Classique and an IWC Chronograph, with estimates ranging from a few thousand to several thousand dollars. "I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat," Coppola tells the Times.

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