Kristin Samra and The Associated Press
2 hours ago
Kevin Costner, director, co-writer and star of “Horizon: An American Saga,” poses at the film’s premiere screening at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles on July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
The second chapter of Kevin Costner’s ambitious film hits theaters in August. Western blockbuster “Horizon: An American Saga” Cancelled after the first film It was a flop in theaters.
New Line Cinema announced Wednesday that “Horizon: Chapter 2” will not hit theaters as scheduled on Aug. 16. The studio had planned to release the two “Horizon” films back-to-back in an unusually quick succession of films, but the distributor changed its mind after the first film grossed a modest $23 million in its first two weeks in theaters.
“Territory Pictures and New Line Cinema have made the decision not to release Horizon: Chapter 2 on August 16 in order to provide audiences with more opportunities to see the first Horizon film over the coming weeks,” a New Line spokesperson said in a statement.
As of now, “Chapter 2” doesn’t have a release date on the theatrical calendar. The first film, “Horizon,” hit theaters on June 28 and will be available on premium on-demand on July 16. A release date for Max has yet to be announced. The change in plans was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The move was a humble admission that Costner took a big theatrical gamble on his decades-old passion project only to have it fail to catch on with audiences. The first chapter of “Horizon,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, cost roughly $100 million to make, making the path to profitability extremely difficult, if not impossible. Costner has already begun filming Chapter 3, putting up some of his own funds. It will ultimately be four films.
when When asked about the films that will be released in theaters back-to-back in May, Costner said, “The studio wanted to try that. They knew the films were going to be released pretty quickly, every four or five months, and that might have been easier, but they felt this was something people would remember from the first one and tie into the second one.”
Costner, who directed, wrote and starred in “Horizon,” had been working on it for more than 30 years. He confirmed his resignation from The hit series “Yellowstone.” Television was always going to be Horizon’s ultimate destination, he acknowledged.
“They’re going to split this into 100 parts, you know what I mean?” Costner said. “Once they do this four times, they’ll have 13, 14 hours of film, and then they’re going to turn it into a 25-hour TV show and do whatever they want with it. That’s the way we live our lives, but they’ll also exist in this form. And it was important to me to make sure that happened. And I’m the one who paid for it.”
