Why Horizon’s Box Office Never Really Mattered

Without a doubt, Kevin Costner’s Horizon series is one of the most ambitious movie projects in recent memory. Designed as one story split across four films, the first chapter in this series hit theaters on June 28. The three-hour epic severely underperformed at the box office, leading to the film being generally regarded by audiences as a failure.

The primary complaint stemmed from the “unfinished” feel of Horizon. That is, many moviegoers felt it only existed to set up the overarching story and not as a standalone feature. That box office struggle led to Chapter 2 being pulled from its originally scheduled August 16 release date. However, viewers are upset about Horizon‘s structure when it’s doing exactly as it was intended to do.

We were never going to get the full story in Horizon Chapter 1 because that’s not how Horizon was designed. The complete story takes four films, which the instant gratification-loving internet doesn’t seem too happy about. Though not everyone feels this way, and many more who watched Horizon Chapter 1 appreciated how it set up something grander than just a single-movie story. In any case, immediately labeling the entire franchise as a failure is premature. Horizon deserves a chance to prove itself.

Horizon’s Not Your Conventional Western Flick

Horizon

2/5

Release Date

June 28, 2024

Studio(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures , New Line Cinema , Territory Pictures

Runtime

3h 1m

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Read Our Review

The Horizon saga has been a passion project (though he would dispute that label) for Costner since as far back as 1988. It began as just one movie, then a trilogy, then the quartet of films that we know today. Costner kept adding more story and more movies because his vision couldn’t be contained within just one film. And therein lies one of the problems.

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Going to the theater is a century-old ritual, and audiences know what to expect. Go in, watch for about two hours, get a sense of a resolved story, and you’re done. Horizon is different in that it’s not designed to be watched in one sitting. It’s a single 8-12 hour story broken up into four films. Typically, audiences want to have some sense of closure after leaving the theater, and Horizon didn’t provide that. That lack of a self-contained story led many to blast Horizon Chapter 1 as a failure. But in reality, it’s doing just what it was designed to do. Labeling Horizon one way or the other is unfair when we’ve only seen 25% of the story. But today’s audience doesn’t want to wait.

From Box Office Flop to Streaming Triumph

The “failure” theory seemed to gain steam when Chapter 2 was pulled from its scheduled August 16 date. Horizon was underperforming, and there were concerns that not enough people would return to the theater for the second installment just seven weeks later. However, in July 2024, Warner Bros released Horizon on streaming VOD, and those numbers told a different story. It shot to the top of the charts during its release week, beating out other popular titles like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and The Garfield Movie. Those who were quick to write off Horizon as a failure may have gotten ahead of themselves.

This release proves that there is an audience for Horizon, but it may not be the theater-going kind. Horizon Chapter 1 clocks in at just over three hours. That’s a long time to sit in a theater with no breaks. But at home, viewers can start and stop the movie as they please or rewatch it sometime down the road. Horizon likely benefitted from word-of-mouth promotion as well. After the theatrical fiasco died down and people started to understand that Horizon Chapter 1 would act as a setup instead of a standalone, they seemed more willing to give it a chance.

Costner and the filmmakers trusted the audience to go to the theater and retain three hours of the story until Chapter 2‘s release, then six hours until Chapter 3, and finally nine hours until Chapter 4 wraps everything up. Most audience members wouldn’t be able to keep track of everything. The home media release allows viewers to set their own schedule without the hassle of a lengthy theater visit. The films can be broken into smaller chunks and rewatched as memory refreshers before the next installment drops.

In that way, Horizon could almost work better as a serialized TV series. Audiences don’t go into watching shows like House of the Dragon with the expectation that each episode is a self-contained story. However, Horizon was a theatrical release, and most audiences want the film to be able to stand on its own, even when being part of a broader franchise.

Kevin Costner’s Vision for the Horizon Franchise

Everyone who saw Horizon will likely have a different opinion on its release strategy. But in the end, Costner made the series for himself. He structured it as one story across four films because he wanted that epic Western theatrical experience. Critical and commercial reception came second to his desire to get the story onto the screen by any means necessary. The problem is that filmgoers did not share his vision. To satisfy the “instant gratification” crowd, Costner would have needed to release the story as one singular 10+ hour movie, which would obviously be impossible. Even the initial strategy, releasing the second film before the first had a shot with the streaming market, might have been the wrong move.

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While Horizon Chapter 1 viewers had complaints, many more understood what Costner wanted to do with the Horizon franchise. If you went into the film with the understanding that it would not provide closure, you may have enjoyed it more. Treat it as the first quarter of a book or the first batch of TV episodes. It’s building to something greater, and if you stick through it to the end, the payoff should hopefully be worth it.

It’s too early to tell how Warner Bros will handle the release strategy for the remaining chapters. Costner has invested a lot of money into the project, so abandoning theaters entirely seems unlikely. But maybe a dual theater-and-VOD strategy is the best. Those who appreciate Horizon as an epic big-screen experience will have that option, and the crowd that prefers to watch at home in smaller increments could do that as well. Yes, it’s had a bumpy rollout. This new strategy could be for the best, as Warner Bros sees signs that Horizon may be a sleeper hit. We can only wait and see how the rest of the movies are handled, but anyone who immediately labeled the entire thing as a failure may have missed the point. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video, and Google Play.