Francis Ford Coppola is using a historic building he bought for $500,000 more than 50 years ago as collateral for a private loan following his $120 million movie flop.
It comes a year after Megalopolis made just $14.4 million at the box office.
The loan amount and the assessed value of the seven-story structure are undisclosed, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported it.
Coppola, 86, received the sum from Palo Alto-based Capital Holdings VI LLC after putting up the landmark as a guarantee.
He snapped up Columbus Tower in San Francisco in 1972 following the success of The Godfather.
The financial fallout from his latest film is still being felt. Coppola poured $120 million of his own finances into it to make it a reality, and has since been faced with mounting debt.
‘I don’t have any money because I invested all the money that I borrowed to make Megalopolis. It’s basically gone. I think it’ll come back over 15 or 20 years, but I don’t have it now,’ he told producer Rick Rubin earlier this year.
‘I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,’ Coppola told the New York Times in October.
Just last month, the director sold a private island in Belize where he frequently vacationed for $1.8 million.
He is also set to sell several high-end watches at an auction in December, with each expected to secure sums in the six and seven figures.
Coppola has also released a behind-the-scenes documentary, called Megadoc, that charts the making of his splashy sci-fi failure.
He has also rolled out a graphic novel version of the film.
Released in September 2024, it starred Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne, but failed to move the needle.
It also marked Coppola’s return to filmmaking after 13 years, when he made Twixt.
The building, meanwhile, is a designated landmark in San Francisco, set in the North Short neighborhood of the city.
It was constructed during the city’s great earthquake of 1906 – its steel frame a testament to its resilience.
It is completely clad in tile and green copper and can be found on the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Kearny Street.
Also known as The Sentinel Building, it houses the office for Coppola’s privately owned film studio, American Zoetrope. Its eighth floor is home to a private residence, and its first floor houses a European-inspired café and wine shop also run by the director.
It boasts a Beaux Arts look that Coppola said he fell in love with ‘at first sight’ as a young director.
He told the San Francisco Examiner in 2020: ‘The idea that it could be mine and that our fledgling film company could be based there was hard to believe.
‘It stood proudly as a symbol of North Beach, the kind of bohemian neighborhood I’d always dreamt about, the home of so much history and so many legends.’
The building was put up as security in documents filed by Coppola with the San Francisco assessor-recorder, according to The Chronicle.
