Kevin Costner‘s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2″ won’t be hitting theaters on Aug. 16 anymore.
At this time, the film remains a theatrical release but it’s unclear when it will now come out.
“Territory Pictures and New Line Cinema have decided not to release ‘Horizon: Chapter 2’ on August 16 in order to give audiences a greater opportunity to discover the first installment of ‘Horizon’ over the coming weeks, including on PVOD and Max,” a New Line Cinema spokesperson tells Variety. “We thank our exhibition partners for their continued support as moviegoers across the U.S. discover the film in its theatrical run.”
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The film is set to hit PVOD on July 16. A Max release date has not yet been announced.
“The audience response to ‘Horizon,’ and enthusiasm for seeing our story continue in ‘Horizon 2,’ has been incredibly gratifying. Kevin made this film for people who love movies and who wanted to go on a journey. The support that we have received from film fans, and the theater owners, as they experience the first chapter of this saga only serves to reinforce our belief in them and the films that we have made, and we thank them for coming on board for the ride,” Territory Pictures said in a statement. “We welcome the opportunity for that window to be expanded as we know it will only serve to enhance the experience of seeing ‘Horizon 2.'”
Sources tell Variety that “Horizon” has performed steadily with older moviegoers in middle America. The decision to change the release date was mutual, according to sources, and hopes to offer audiences more time to find the first film and — god willing – build anticipation for the second. In order for the Western franchise to survive to its planned four movies, the first two of which were shot back-to-back, insiders said it needs to capture more eyeballs on streaming.
Costner put up a hefty chunk of his own cash to get the Western film made. “I know they say I’ve got $20 million of my own money in this movie,” he said last month. “It’s not true. I’ve got now about $38 million in the film. That’s the truth. That’s the real number.”
On its opening weekend, the film, which carried a $100 million budget, earned only $11 million and landed in third place on domestic box office charts.
“I’ve lived with movies and what happens to them on their opening weekend,” Costner said in an interview published the day of “Horizon’s” release. “If we put so much pressure on that, we’re bound to be disappointed. I’m really happy that ‘Horizon’ looks like what it’s supposed to look like, and that’s the way it’ll look the rest of its life. And that’s really important to me in this process.”
Costner and his filmmaking team locked picture on “Chapter 2” on June 23 — the night before “Chapter 1” made its premiere in Los Angeles.
“It was literally last night,” Costner told Variety‘s Angelique Jackson, who then asked how the filmmaker defines success when it comes to the franchise. Costner offered a comparison to the film’s plot and the characters’ hard road moving out West.
“These characters all have to dig in to survive,” he explained. “I had to dig in and I have had to call on things that I didn’t know that I was going to have to. But I’ve also felt really lucky that that I could actually guide this process, lucky enough that I could make it.”
In fact, Costner began production on the third film in mid-May, taking a pause to promote the “Chapter 1” at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, then touring the movie around the U.S. Filming on “Chapter 3” is expected to resume in mid-August and key members of the crew also have the script for “Chapter 4.”
In his review of the first film, Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman wrote, “Instead of unfurling a Western saga in a solid powerful arc, Costner serves up three hours of anecdotes, cross-cutting among groups of characters, dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly, taking a skittery overview of life on the range, and asking the audience, in many cases, to stitch together the backstory of what they’re seeing.”
The Hollywood Reporter was first to report the news of the release date change.
