Kevin Costner had trouble launching a new planned Western movie franchise in 2024, but the sequels could be saved now that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is now streaming. The director and star of Horizon: An American Saga spent years developing this passion project, with the idea for the franchise expanding into four different movies. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is the first installment of the new Western franchise for Costner. His faith in the film was so substantial that he was willing to walk away from finishing Yellowstone to create this replacement series.
The franchise officially debuted in theaters on June 28, 2024, with Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 scheduled to release less than two months later. These plans were altered due to the movie’s performance, as not as many people went to theaters to see Costner’s vision brought to life. It appeared that those who helped make Yellowstone a smash hit on streaming elected to wait until Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 went to streaming to see it, too. Whether for a first-time viewing or to rewatch Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’s ending, it’s now time.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Is Now Streaming On Max
Costner’s Movie Has Its Streaming Debut
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is now streaming on Max, marking the first time the movie is available on a streaming service. Warner Bros. previously made the movie available to buy or rent on PVOD platforms to give consumers a different option besides waiting for the Max release and needing a subscription. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’s streaming release comes 56 days after it debuted in theaters. That is a few weeks earlier than expected based on Warner Bros.’s average wait between a film’s theatrical and streaming release dates.
The story of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 revolves around multiple different groups of characters and storylines set in the mid-1800s. These include Frances Kittridge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter growing close with Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington), Costner’s Hayes Ellison crossing paths with Marigold (Abbey Lee), the pursuit of Ellen Harvey (Jena Malone) by the Sykes family, and the Apache tribe trying to keep their land safe from being colonized. These storylines intersect in different ways as Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 weaves its narrative across many years.
Horizon Chapter 1’s Theatrical Release & What Went Wrong
The Movie Underwhelmed At The Box Office
Expectations were high at one point for Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’s theatrical release and how it could perform at the box office. However, projections continued to dip as the movie’s release drew closer, and it was effectively dead on arrival on June 28, 2024. It only made $11 million during its opening weekend domestically, finishing third in the weekend overall. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 did not have good legs from then on, as it finished with $29 million domestically. It only added $5 million internationally to give it a total of $34 million.
The troubles for Horizon’s box office came from a multitude of places. It did not help that Costner’s movie received mostly negative reviews from critics, driving its Rotten Tomatoes score down to 48%. Audiences were reasonably mixed on the 3-hour-plus epic, giving it a 70% rating on the Popcornmeter. Westerns already have difficulty finding an audience in theaters nowadays, as they are not the dominant movie genre like before. Without having a strong word of mouth behind it, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 couldn’t find much traction.
The extensive franchise plans for Horizon: An American Saga might have also turned away some viewers. The sequel was planned to come out only a few weeks later, but Warner Bros. reversed that decision after seeing how poorly Chapter 1 did at the box office. Still, the movie’s title tells audiences that this is not a standalone story, and Costner very much treats the movie like the introduction to a larger narrative.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’s Streaming Release Could Help The Sequels
It Already Did Well On PVOD
With so much uncertainty about the fate of Horizon: An American Saga’s sequels, the streaming release for Chapter 1 could be a pivotal moment for Kevin Costner’s franchise and its future. The movie’s potentially massive success as a streaming movie on Max could be enough to help convince Warner Bros. to let Costner finish making the third and fourth installments that are currently in need of more financing. The Horizon: An American Saga’s sequels could even be made directly for streaming if Chapter 1 proves to be a big enough hit for Warner Bros.’s streaming service.
There is reason to believe this will happen too. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 already dominated VOD charts after its release. That shows that there is interest in Costner’s films, just not as a big-screen movie franchise. Any significant impact that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 makes on Max as a streaming release is good news for Kevin Costner, especially when it comes to getting a new release date for Chapter 2. If the opposite happens, the chances of these sequels happening continue to drop.