Kevin Costner put all of his eggs in one basket when he decided to depart Yellowstone in favor of his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga. The ambitious four-part Western was supposed to have the first two chapters released this summer, but those plans have changed since part one tanked at the box office after its June 28 release.
On Wednesday, July 10, the distributors of Horizon shared the news that Costner probably didn’t want to hear — part two of the franchise was indefinitely postponed in movie theaters. “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 [Premium Video on Demand] and Max,” a New Line representative told The Hollywood Reporter. “We thank our exhibition partners for their continued support as moviegoers across the U.S. discover the film in its theatrical run.”
The hope is that the film will earn some of its sizable budget back from viewers who weren’t willing to go to the theaters to watch the three-hour film, but who might be open to paying for the movie from the comfort of their own home. The first film alone had a budget of $100 million with Costner chipping in $38 million of his own fortune to finance production of the first two parts. Let’s not forget that the 69-year-old actor gambled his money, and his successful TV career to direct and star in his dream project.
He’s done it before with 1990’s Dances With Wolves, but moviegoers’ tastes have changed over the last 34 years, and Costner may not have considered that — he was banking on his Yellowstone fans to follow him to the box office. “Kevin is still holding out hope that the final arbiter of HAASP1 will be the millions of fans who have fueled Yellowstone‘s success over the last five years and made that show, for a time, the biggest thing on television,” a source told Life & Style in June. Well, that didn’t happen, and Horizon has only earned a little over $25 million globally. It’s a major Hollywood disappointment.
This setback isn’t holding Costner back from finishing the project. The Hollywood Reporter noted that he will be back filming the third chapter in August even though the second chapter does not have a new release date. Maybe Costner should have heeded finance expert Eric Schiffer’s warning who described his risky money move as “the financial kiss of death” to Fox Business.
“When you think of binging, and you do it perhaps at the house, you’re alone. You have privacy, you have perhaps your loved ones and the ability to break and do other things,” he pointed out. “To sit in a movie theater, even if there’s a small intermission, it sounds like Costner needs to be paying people to go.” Costner and studio executives are probably praying that their plan is the financial magic that they need.
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