Kevin Costner’s second movie ‘Horizon’ removed from cinemas

The scheduled August theatrical release for the second part of Kevin Costner’s Western saga “Horizon: An American Saga” has been canceled following the underwhelming performance of the first film in theaters. New Line Cinema made the announcement that “Horizon: Chapter 2” will not debut on Aug. 16 as originally planned. Despite an initial back-to-back release strategy for the two films, the decision to halt the release of the second chapter was made after the first film only generated $23 million in its first two weeks.

A spokesperson for New Line stated, “Territory Pictures and New Line Cinema have chosen to delay the release of ‘Horizon: Chapter 2’ on August 16 to allow audiences more time to explore the first installment of ‘Horizon’ in the upcoming weeks.” The release date for “Chapter 2” is now labeled TBD on the theatrical calendar, while the first film, which premiered on June 28, will be available on premium on-demand starting July 16. There is no streaming date set for Max yet.

The decision to postpone the release of the second chapter signifies the apparent difficulty Costner’s ambitious project has faced in connecting with viewers. The high production cost of around $100 million for the first chapter, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May, presents a significant challenge for the film to become profitable. Costner, who is involved as a director, co-writer, and actor in the series, has already started filming a third installment of the envisioned four movies.

Costner mentioned, “The studio wanted to try that. I knew this was going to come out fairly quickly, like every four or five months. That may have been easier. But this is something they feel like people can remember the first one and it can tie into the second one.” In pursuing “Horizon,” a project he has worked on for over 30 years, Costner recently announced his departure from the series “Yellowstone,” indicating that the ultimate platform for “Horizon” was intended to be television.

Costner emphasized, “They’re going to break this up into a hundred pieces, you know what I mean? After four of these, they’re going to have 13, 14 hours of film and they’re going to turn into 25 hours of TV, and they’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. That’s just the way we live in our life but they’ll also exist in this form. And that was important for me, to make sure that happened. And I was the one who paid for it.”