Costner’s film “Horizon” has received huge box office revenues

“Inside Out 2,” starring Anxiety, continued to resonate with moviegoers as the No. 1 film in North America for its third weekend. The horror prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also struck a cultural chord, bringing in stronger-than-expected ticket sales.

But ticket buyers have largely rejected Kevin Costner’s three-hour project, “Horizon: An American Odyssey – Chapter One,” which is supposed to be the prequel to the Old West series that was once destined for cinema. Directly to the streaming service Before you can hit the big screen.

Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” was on track to take in $57.4 million, for a three-week total of about $470 million in the United States and Canada, according to box office analysts’ estimates Sunday. The well-reviewed sequel is approaching $1 billion in global ticket sales. No film has reached that sales threshold since “Barbie,” which was released in July 2023.

For the weekend,Quiet Place: Day One“A Quiet Place: Day One” was expected to generate about $53 million in domestic ticket sales — 30 percent more than analysts’ pre-release expectations, which were based on polls that track moviegoer interest. “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which cost Paramount an estimated $67 million, stars Lupita Nyong’o as a cancer patient who, along with her cat Frodo, must navigate a terrifying invasion by aliens with extremely sensitive ears.

Prequels are risky. Notable misses include “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The First Omen,” and “Lightyear.” Fans already know what’s going to happen next in the story, which makes it difficult for studio marketers to build excitement, and prequels often lack the stars who helped make franchises popular in the first place. For example, Emily Blunt headlined the first two Quiet Place films.

“Day One”‘s strong performance is even more impressive considering that its studio, Paramount, has recently been caught up in a disturbing sell-out drama. Shari Redstone, the company’s controlling shareholder, ousted a top executive, negotiated a takeover bid, and finally called the whole thing off, sending the stock price plummeting. Despite this turmoil, Paramount’s film team brilliantly succeeded in getting “Day One” onto the market.

Costner’s much-hyped “Horizon,” which cost an estimated $100 million to produce plus another $30 million for marketing, came in third. Analysts said it was on track to earn $11 million. (Theaters and studios split ticket sales roughly 50-50.) Costner had hoped that fans of his hit contemporary Western “Yellowstone,” especially those in the heartland, would flock to theaters. That proved to be a pipe dream.

Can Horizon regain its footing in the coming weeks? Box office experts were not optimistic. poor reviewsAdditionally, ticket buyers gave “Horizon” a B- in CinemaScore polls, meaning word-of-mouth is weak.

Warner Bros. will release Chapter 2 on August 16. Mr. Costner has already begun production on the third part and has also announced the fourth installment.

Warner Bros. is acting solely as a rental distributor, meaning the studio has no investment in the films and therefore no financial exposure. (The company will take a percentage of ticket sales—about 8 percent—as a fee for its services.) To finance the project, Costner mortgaged properties in Santa Barbara, California, and secured backing from private investors. He then left Yellowstone to focus on Horizon.

“There are movies that beat the odds, break the mold, and prove the skeptics wrong,” said David Gross, a film consultant who is publishing a book. the news “In this case, the template is still intact: Westerns are no longer popular, and there has not been a successful Western series in theaters in the past fifty years.”