Kevin Costner’s passion project, the tediously-named Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1, bombed with critics and the box office in its opening weekend. Somehow, the masses didn’t turn out for a three-hour civil war-era drama that’s part one of a planned four films, who’d a-thunk it? Aside from it being crushing to Costner artistically, the lackluster opening also puts him in dicey financial straits: Costner forked over $38 million of his own money — including mortgaging his Southern California mansion — towards the $100 million budget (and that’s just the budget for film one). Now, not even two full weeks later, Costner has been dealt another blow: the second film, titled (say it with me now!) Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2, has been yanked from its August 16 release date, with no replacement date announced. They’re saying it’s to “grow the audience” for Horizon 1, which they’re moving to Premium VOD next week:
Growing the audience: After numerous discussions, Costner’s Territory Pictures and distribution partner New Line Cinema made the decision to switch up their ambitious release plan in hopes of allowing more time to grow the audience for the first film, which sports a $100 million price tag. As part of that attempt, Chapter 1 will debut in the home on Premium VOD July 16 in addition to still being available to watch in theaters (the film could do notable business on PVOD).
We get more time ‘to discover’ the first film! “Territory Pictures and New Line Cinema have decided not to release Horizon: Chapter 2 on August 16 in order to give audiences a greater opportunity to discover the first installment of Horizon over the coming weeks, including on PVOD on Max. We thank our exhibition partners for their continued support as moviegoers across the U.S. discover the film in its theatrical run,” a New Line spokesperson said.
Bless them, they’re trying so hard: Added Territory Pictures in a separate statement, “The audience response to Horizon, and enthusiasm for seeing our story continue in Horizon 2, has been incredibly gratifying. Kevin made this film for people who love movies and who wanted to go on a journey. The support that we have received from film fans, and the theater owners, as they experience the first chapter of this saga only serves to reinforce our belief in them and the films that we have made, and we thank them for coming on board for the ride. We welcome the opportunity for that window to be expanded as we know it will only serve to enhance the experience of seeing Horizon 2.”
Uh-oh, theaters had already sold advance tix for Horizon 2: Warner Bros., New Line’s parent company, began notifying theater owners of the dramatic eleventh-hour change Wednesday morning. Many cinemas had offered consumers the chance to buy advance tickets for Chapter 2; they will now have to be refunded.
By the numbers: The Horizon series marks a major gamble for Costner, who put $38 million of his own money into Chapter 1 and funded the rest with the help of two mystery investors and by selling off foreign rights. New Line and Warners agreed to distribute and market the first two movies for a fee, with Costner ponying up for the marketing. … Horizon: Chapter 1, sporting a running time of three hours and one minute, opened to just $11 million over the June 28-30 weekend. It was an alarming debut for the $100 million movie, which was hampered by a poor B– CinemaScore and tepid reviews (it has a 43 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It tumbled 51 percent in its second weekend to $5.4 million for a 10-day domestic total of $22 million. Worse, it’s earned less than $3 million overseas. Chapter 2 likewise cost roughly $100 million to make. Costner’s team indicated last week that he intends to resume shooting Chapter 3 in August.
I’d like to take a moment to salute the distributors for their admirable, if painfully anemic, spin on all this. “Growing the audience” and offering “a greater opportunity to discover the first installment,” are just so hilariously transparent. I think to pull off back-to-back releases within a two-month period, it has to be a known franchise, or it has to have Zendaya. THR’s breakdown did note that the American “heartland” went to see Horizon 1, but it was predominantly a demographic of older audience members who “are not known for rushing out to see a film right away.” Their words, not mine. So, Horizon 2 is not on the horizon, and this whole saga is really costing Costner. I have two questions: who are these “mystery investors,” and how soon are they and/or the bank seizing that mansion he mortgaged?
Photos credit: IMAGO/Dave Bedrosian / Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, Getty
Couldn’t have happened to a better asshole, bless the cavern where his heart should be.
To bad he didn’t consult an astrologer before setting out on this venture. He should’ve did this project 10-15 years ago, when those interested in this sort of film were younger.
Did he think through any of the logistics involved or was this just a pure vanity play? Does he have enough resources to protect his house?
I bet Christine is chuckling a bit to herself about all of this.
Kevin had accumulated a massive amount of land along the coast. He will sell part of that off and have plenty left with his existing home on it.
“Kevin Costner made headlines last year for taking out a mortgage on his seaside Santa Barbara estate to fund the filming of Horizon, the four-part epic Western he’s been developing for over 30 years.
He doesn’t regret the financial move, even though he’d originally intended to build his last family home on the 10-acre plot of land.”
This makes me sad. Costner is my forever crush.
His ego must be stratospheric in size. Does he, and his investors, not remember the money hole of “Waterworld” and “The Postman?” He has a history of failing with his vanity projects of huge, epic films.
IMHO it’s a mix of ego and ineptitude.
If you can’t tell a story in less than 12 hours and in less than 3-hour increments, you have no business making movies.
If you make a niche movie, can you be surprised that it doesn’t perform like a Marvel or other franchise movie? Westerns aren’t exactly mainstream anymore, and the success of Yellowstone can’t be used as a benchmark because it’s an ensemble, modern and basically a soap opera. Kevin Costner can be a great actor but a terrible person and clearly has a bad picker when it comes to producing movies.
And I think Westerns are notoriously poor performers overseas! The market for this was always going to be limited in a way films like Dune or Guardians of the Galaxy weren’t. This seems like such a weird move for investors to make.
In other words the audience is all boomer men, the same people who probably endlessly complain about high ticket prices and repeatedly lumber out of their seats for bathroom visits during even a normal length movie. Perfect demographic for a four parter that is three hours each. And a lot of them are the guys who don’t use smartphones so they rely on their wives to find out and tell them if there is a movie playing they might like.
Why didn’t he release it to a streaming platform? 🤦🏻♀️ These stars who have had their day in the sun are bombing left and right (JT/JLO), read the damn room. They still think it’s the 90s/early 2000s
That or making it as a tv show. I don’t really understand why he went for the theatre release when he seemed to have some tv background with Yellowstone, but maybe it’s just an ego problem.
I loved it and we were excited about the August release. But it should have been a mini series.
Costner seems to have trouble learning the same lesson over and over again. I hope he’s able to learn something and grow.
Man, no WOC/POC producer/director/actor would _ever_ get cut this kind of slack. This really should be three-strikes-you’re-out for him big-screen-wise…
Not releasing this as an miniseries or on an streaming service was an massive blunder. Releasing an Western and an three hours plus one was an tough sell already. Even Endgame and the LOTR trilogy capped it under 3 hours. Westerns are an niche genre as is.and i am not sure why Cosner thought people would turn out to watch. Well other then Hubris
Totally agree that this should be a mini-series. The number of 3 hour films people will sit through at the theatre is sooo limited. But folks will watch 9+ hours of a show at home on their couch pretty consistently.
First off, I hate Westerns. Second off, I’m probably not the only one. I don’t care how much of a Western fan you are, who wants to sit in a theatre watching a 4-part Western DRAMA series that runs 3 hours long? Echoing others on this thread, Costner probably would have more success if this was a TV, cable, streaming series. Like Yellowstone.
If the story needed four huge films to tell, it was never movie material to begin with. That’s a miniseries on HBO. Costner is also a prick, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s trash, anyway.
But really, who’s in the mood to rehash the worst of American history when the Union is facing another deep divide that will determine its future as a democracy?
I liked Water World. Even Postman. This one just seems boring.