Somewhat good news for Kevin Costner‘s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2.” It’s set to have its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 7. Costner will be in attendance for the post-screening Q&A.
There is currently no release date for ‘Chapter 2,’ which was pulled from Warner Bros’ summer 2024 schedule after the first instalment, which cost $110M, failed to lure an audience into theaters, earning just $29M domestically.
‘Chapter 2’ had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, albeit to weak reviews which further complicated matters for a potential future release.
Warner Bros doesn’t seem to have an official game plan when it comes to ‘Chapter 2.’ Its current state is in limbo. Recently, Puck’s Matt Belloni had his sources expressing doubt about it ever hitting theatres, and that maybe, without Costner’s approval, a straight to streaming debut on Max could happen.
This month, ‘Chapter 1’ pulled in very good numbers on streaming — peaking at #2 on the Netflix charts. It proved that there was an audience for this franchise, but maybe not in theaters.
Last summer, Costner shot nine days’ worth of footage for ‘Chapter 3’ before production had to be shut down due to lack of funds. You know who might be willing to kickstart production back up again? Netflix. Just saying. At this point, the wisest thing Costner could do is turn these movies into streaming events.