Costner’s ‘Horizon’ Takes Big at Box Office

“Inside Out 2,” starring an avatar named “Anxity,” continues to impress moviegoers as the No. 1 film in North America for the third week in a row. The horror thriller “A Quiet Place: Day One” also struck a cultural chord, with higher-than-expected ticket sales.

But ticket buyers largely rejected Kevin Costner’s three-hour, slick project, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” the supposed precursor to the Old West series that was once scheduled to be released. Directly to the streaming service Before you can hit the big screen.

Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” has taken in $57.4 million, bringing its three-week total to about $470 million in the United States and Canada, according to box office analyst estimates Sunday. The well-reviewed sequel is closing in on $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. No film has reached that sales threshold since “Barbie,” which came out in July 2023.

for the weekend,”A 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 to produce, stars Lupita Nyong’o as a cancer patient who, along with her cat Frodo, must navigate a horrific 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 and another $30 million to market, 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 reviews. Additionally, ticket buyers gave “Horizon” a B-minus in CinemaScore polls, meaning word of mouth will be weak.

Warner Bros. will release The second semester on August 16. Mr. Costner has already begun production on the third installment and has also announced the fourth installment.

Warner Bros. as a rental-only distributor, meaning the studio invested nothing in the films and thus had no financial exposure. (The company will take a share of ticket sales — about 8 percent — as a fee for its services.) To finance the project, Mr. Costner mortgaged real estate in Santa Barbara, California, and secured support from private investors. He 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 On box office numbers. “In this case, the template is still intact: Westerns are not in fashion, and there has not been a successful Western sitcom in the last fifty years.”