The Western saga Horizon has been a passion project for Kevin Costner since 1988. You can tell from the massive scale shown in the trailer that the Yellowstone actor poured everything into his epic Western. While Horizon: Chapter One sadly went belly up in box office numbers and reviews, Costner’s movie seems to be finding the success the filmmaker wanted on streaming.
The Horizon saga didn’t exactly leave a good first impression when it debuted in theaters on June 28th. It received a poor opening weekend of $11 million, a 51% drop of $5.4 million the next weekend, and then finished in seventh on its third weekend with $2.4 million. It didn’t help that critics weighed in with mixed Horizon reviews, loving the grand scale of the Old West, but feeling it lacked a cohesive narrative.
While Horizon didn’t fare well with its theatrical release, it had better luck on streaming. According to ReelGood, the epic Western is standing at number ten for movies across all of the best streaming services. It looks to be ranking behind movies such as Amazon Prime’s Jackpot! and the Netflix movies The Union and Deliverance. Chapter One is seemingly doing a better job on one's Max subscription ranking at number three in movies behind The Martian and Beetlejuice.
The exceptional numbers are ironic considering Kevin Costner didn’t want his movie to get a direct-to-streaming release. It makes sense since he wanted audiences to have a cinematic experience with his Western told on the big screen. However, it looks like more people were willing to give Chapter One a try when they saw it hit their streaming service.
Because Horizon: Chapter One didn’t make the best numbers, Chapter Two lost its original August release date. However, it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for Kevin Costner’s film series. The second part of Horizon had its premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival and is expected to come to theaters later this year. Costner also has an exciting update for the third and fourth parts, with shooting having started on Chapter Three and the goal being to shoot it back-to-back with Chapter Four next spring. It’s proof that the Dances with Wolves actor doesn’t care about the numbers or what critics say. He believes in his Western project and he’ll see fit that audiences get to view all four parts of it.
Maybe Horizon: Chapter One didn’t get the big numbers that Kevin Costner was hoping for, but on the other hand, at least streamers were quick to give the 2024 movie release a chance. Maybe with Max subscribers watching the first part of the Western film series, it can motivate more people to see the story continue and increase its chances for better box office numbers the second time around.
