“Chapter Two” Of Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Will No Longer Release In Theaters, Delayed Indefinitely

Not the news that Kevin Costner fans wanted to see. It shouldn't be all that surprising that "Chapter Two" of Horizon: An American Saga is being pulled from its original August theatrical release with how poorly the first installment performed . The Hollywood Reporter shared that the second movie in the planned four-part series will no longer hit theaters on August 16th. Why? Well, to be frank, it's because the saga's first chapter performed so poorly at the box office. Horizon's maiden voyage at the movies only made $11 million in its opening weekend. That obviously means the film fell short of expectations, considering that Costner has put forth $38 million of his own money for this passion project, and the first film's budget came in around $100 million. It was a little risky to plan - and basically go ahead and execute - a four-part movie series before giving audiences a chance to see if they like it. With the struggles of "Chapter One," Costner and his movie crew have opted to pull "Chapter Two" from the release calendar. According to the reports, the 69-year-old actor and director sat down with Territory Pictures and their distribution partner, New Line Cinema, and ultimately made the decision to delay the second film. The hope is that pushing back "Chapter Two" will give audiences more time to discover and appreciate "Chapter One." That plan might be as ambitious as the original plan to do four movies in total, considering moviegoers knew where to find the first chapter of Horizon , but they just chose not to go see it. A statement about the decision from a New Line Cinema spokesperson read: "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.  We thank our exhibition partners for their continued support as moviegoers across the US discover the film in its theatrical run." https://twitter.com/RottenTomatoes/status/1811105924867666166 So now the success of the rest of the saga seems to hang in the balance of... video-on-demand and streaming? Those that are interested in seeing "Chapter One" will be able to do so from home as soon as July 16th, when the movie becomes available through PVOD. Maybe that's where Costner's passion project should have gone in the first place? From the sounds of it though, this isn't Costner and his movie studio giving up, but rather changing course. Another statement from Territory Pictures spoke positively about Horizon: An American Saga and the potential remaining sequels that are still planned as of right now: "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. 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.”