Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2” won’t be released in theaters on August 16. The film has been pulled from the schedule.
This news comes as the $110M first chapter is mightily struggling at the box-office. So far, it has only grossed $22M and is set to be released next week on VOD, only 19 days after its theatrical launch.
Costner’s Territory Pictures and distribution partner New Line Cinema made the decision to pull ‘Chapter 2’ from its intended release “in hopes of allowing more time to grow the audience for the first film”. That does make sense. It was never a good idea to have both of these films released so close to each other in the schedule.
Many theaters had offered consumers the chance to buy advance tickets for ‘Chapter 2’; they will now be refunded their money. There are no details as to when exactly the sequel will be released — what if it doesn’t gain much of an audience on streaming? It would not surprise me one bit if it goes straight to Warners’ streaming service Max.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to lukewarm reviews, and that really sealed its fate. ‘Horizon’ needed good reviews if it was going to be a commercial success, but that never materialized, and now Costner has to decide whether streaming is the best way to go for the final three films.
Costner is said to have invested $38M of his own money into ‘Chapter 1’ and funded the rest “with the help of two mystery investors” and by selling off foreign rights. My best guess is that he was funded by Saudi and Russian money. Regardless, the 3-hour sequel is also said to have a budget of $90-$100M.
It was reported last week that Costner will resume shooting ‘Chapter 3’ in August.