Watch Auction Puts $11 Million Dent In Francis Ford Coppola's Massive "Megalopolis" Losses… Only $109 Million To Go

For over five decades, Francis Ford Coppola has been Hollywood's greatest high-stakes gambler, a filmmaker who bet everything, time and again, on his uncompromising vision of what cinema could be. To finance these gambles, Francis has begged, borrowed, and mortgaged. He's sold buildings, islands, vineyards, and more. He's stared down bankruptcy not once but multiple times, all in pursuit of art that defied commercial logic.

Some of those bets paid off massively. Others, not so much. Unfortunately, Coppola's latest passion project, "Megalopolis", landed in the "not so much" category.

Released in 2024 after decades of development and delays, "Megalopolis" was a personal triumph but a financial disaster. Despite its star-studded cast and grand ambition, the film grossed just $14.4 million worldwide. That's a problem because the film cost more than $120 million to make. And unlike a typical director who would have used a studio's money to finance at least a portion of the budget, Francis chipped in that $120 million FROM HIS OWN BANK ACCOUNT. Not part of it. All of it.

At his financial peak, Francis Ford Coppola's net worth was well over $100 million — perhaps closer to $200 million when factoring in the value of his wineries, real estate, film catalog, royalties, and lifestyle brand. He sold two Napa vineyards to raise much of the $120 million he used for "Megalopolis." That fortune has been entirely wiped away.

In March 2025, during an appearance on Rick Rubin's "Tetragrammaton" podcast, Francis spoke candidly about the fallout and his financial problems:

"I don't have any money because I invested all the money, that I borrowed, to make 'Megalopolis. It's basically gone." 

In an October 2025 interview with the New York Times, Francis confirmed he was "broke" and was planning to sell personal items to "keep the ship afloat." Hitting the auction block first was his impressive watch collection.

(MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP via Getty Images)

A Director's Timepieces

Over the weekend, seven watches from Francis Ford Coppola's private collection were auctioned at Phillips New York Watch Auction: XIII. The high-end estimate of the total amount that would be raised from the auction was $1.3 million, most of which would come from one watch, a one-of-a-kind F.P. Journe FFC Prototype that was expected to fetch $1 million. When the final gavel struck after an 11-minute auction, that one watch alone sold for $10.755 million. The seven watches collectively sold for $11.69 million. Below is a table listing each watch, the estimated sale price, and the final sale price:

At the center of the sale was the F.P. Journe FFC Prototype, a one-of-a-kind mechanical marvel co-designed by Coppola himself and Swiss master watchmaker François-Paul Journe. The timepiece, which tells time using a sculpted human hand that moves its fingers to indicate the hour, sold for $10.755 million. It set a new record for the most expensive F.P. Journe wristwatch ever sold, surpassing the previous $8.3 million benchmark set in Geneva in 2024. It was also the highest price achieved at auction in the United States for a timepiece since the $17.8 million sale of Paul Newman's Rolex "Paul Newman" Daytona, also sold by Phillips, in 2017.

The FFC Prototype wasn't just a collector's trophy—it was the product of a genuine friendship and collaboration. The idea for the watch began in 2012, during a dinner at Coppola's Inglenook estate in Napa Valley. Journe was visiting, and Coppola casually asked whether anyone had ever made a watch that told time using a human hand. That single question sparked the development of a concept that would take nearly a decade to realize. The result, gifted to Coppola in 2021, was a technical and artistic feat: a mechanical sculpture in motion, created not by marketing committee but by two men obsessed with craft.

Although the FFC drew the headlines, the rest of the collection offered a more personal glimpse into Coppola's tastes and experiences. A platinum Chronomètre à Résonance, gifted to him by his wife Eleanor in 2009, sold for $584,200. It was the watch that began his correspondence with Journe and ultimately led to the creation of the FFC. The other pieces, from a Blancpain minute repeater to a humble IWC chronograph, revealed a collector who valued legacy, precision, and storytelling in every object he owned.

Unfortunately, this watch collection is not the only Coppola asset being sold off to raise money. Last month, Francis sold one of his islands in Belize for $1.8 million. Other assets are surely to follow. Coppola still owns several high-end properties and hospitality ventures, including Blancaneaux Lodge and Turtle Inn in Belize, La Lancha in Guatemala, and the Palazzo Margherita, a luxury hotel in southern Italy that once belonged to his grandfather's family. These resorts operate under The Family Coppola Hideaways brand, which was once considered a major pillar of his post-Hollywood business empire.

He also remains the longtime owner of the Sentinel Building in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood—a historic copper-green flatiron he purchased in 1973 and used as headquarters for his independent studio, American Zoetrope. That building, too, has reportedly been put up as collateral for a private loan, suggesting it may not be off the table if further liquidations are needed.

In an industry driven by profit margins and market-tested scripts, Coppola remains a rare figure: someone who would rather risk financial ruin than make something safe. But you know what could get him out of this hole really quick? Maybe the next Marvel movie will be helmed by Francis Ford Coppola 🙂