Today, we have a handful of media reporting on early tracking numbers for Kevin Costner’s first “Horizon” film (THR, Deadline, Showbiz411). This project was a major risk, and suffice to say, it doesn’t look good.
Right now, ‘Horizon: An American Saga — Part 1” is looking at a $9-12M opening weekend, in around 2500 locations. The film cost $100M to produce, with Costner shelling $38M of his own money. Much like with Coppola and “Megalopolis,” you can’t help but root for the guy.
The Cannes premiere, a full month before its June 28 release, possibly tanked anticipation, with early reviews being very mixed (38% on RT and 51 on Metacritic). ‘Horizon’ film is 3 hours, and banking hard on Costner’s “Yellowstone” audience to show up on opening weekend. It doesn’t like many of them will.
So, the question remains, if the first installment fails, will Warner Bros still release the second part in August? Send it straight to Max? What about the the third and fourth instalments? Costner is very adamant at completing his tetralogy of films, he’s already shot nine days’ worth of footage for the third one but ran out of money and production had to be halted. They’re aiming for a fall reboot with all of the actors involved. Godspeed.