Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is using San Francisco’s historic Sentinel Building as collateral for a new private loan in his ongoing efforts to mitigate the financial disaster created by his 2024 box office flop “Megalopolis.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reports documents filed with the city’s assessor-recorder show the company Francis Ford Coppola Presents has secured a loan from Capital Holdings VI LLC with the seven-story North Beach property as a guarantee. The loan amount was not disclosed.
The Sentinel Building, also known as the Columbus Tower, was completed in 1907. Coppola acquired the property in 1973 for $500,000 and used it as the headquarters for his American Zoetrope production company. Coppola previously put up the building as collateral in 1998 during an earlier financial crisis and nearly lost it in the 1980s foreclosure auction when his fortunes ebbed following a string of poor-performing films.
The $120 million film “Megalopolis” earned only $14.4 million at the box office. Last month, the filmmaker sought to cover his mounting debts with the $1.8 million sale of Coral Caye, his eight-mile long, 2.5-acre island off the coast of Belize.
Photo by Dllu / Wikimedia Commons
