For more than 50 years, Francis Ford Coppola has embodied the spirit of risk-taking in Hollywood, constantly wagering on his bold vision of cinematic art. Throughout his career, he’s pulled out all the stops to finance his artistic endeavors, resorting to borrowing, mortgaging, and selling assets ranging from buildings to vineyards. Coppola has faced the brink of financial ruin on numerous occasions, all in the name of creating art that often defies commercial norms.

While some of these ventures have yielded significant rewards, others have not fared as well. Regrettably, his most recent passion project, “Megalopolis,” falls into the latter category.

Debuting in 2024 after years of anticipation and setbacks, “Megalopolis” was a creative triumph for Coppola but a commercial failure. Despite its stellar cast and ambitious scope, the film managed to earn only $14.4 million worldwide. This was a major issue considering the production cost exceeded $120 million. Unlike most directors who rely on studio funding for at least part of their budget, Coppola funded the entire amount from his own finances.

At the height of his wealth, Coppola’s net worth comfortably exceeded $100 million, possibly approaching $200 million when accounting for his wineries, real estate, film rights, royalties, and lifestyle enterprises. To fund “Megalopolis,” he sold two Napa Valley vineyards, a move that effectively drained his fortune.

In March 2025, during a candid discussion on Rick Rubin’s “Tetragrammaton” podcast, Coppola openly addressed the financial repercussions:

“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 🙂