“Kevin Costner Turns to Netflix for Support in Realizing His ‘Horizon’ Dream”
Kevin Costner’s Horizon has secured a U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this February, but the future of the franchise remains uncertain. While the first movie has found success on streaming platforms, Chapter 3 of the series is currently stalled due to financial setbacks. Despite Costner investing a reported $100 million of his own money, and securing additional backing from other individual investors, the disappointing box office performance of Chapter 1 has put the franchise in a precarious position. However, the film’s recent strong showing on Netflix, following its chart-topping performance on Max, has given Costner some hope. He’s now reportedly looking to Netflix to help fund the completion of his four-movie plan.
A source familiar with the project told Life & Style that while Costner appears calm and collected on the outside, he’s been under significant stress behind the scenes, both financially and personally. “Kevin is good at projecting calm, experience, and a generally level head, but behind the scenes the whole Horizon project has been stressful to him financially, physically, and even intellectually,” the source shared.
Originally envisioned as a streaming TV series, Horizon pivoted to the big screen after the success of Yellowstone brought Costner new riches. However, the poor box office results for the first film left Costner searching for ways to keep the franchise alive. With the success of Horizon on Netflix, Costner is reportedly hoping the streaming giant will step in to help. “Kevin and his team need it to perform on Netflix because right now, Netflix is the only company with deep enough pockets to completely bail him out of the hole Kevin has dug for himself with these movies. It’s a big check to write, but if the first movie continues to perform well for Netflix’s viewers, the expectation around town and within Kevin’s Hollywood circle is that Netflix will eventually step up and buy the rights to the whole series and take Kevin out of debt,” the source explained.
While this solution remains far from guaranteed, there’s still hope for the future of Horizon. Chapter 2 is likely to see a theatrical release within the next six months, and with the film now available to millions of viewers at home, there may be more incentive for people to check out the sequel in theaters. If Horizon – Chapter 2 becomes a hit, the franchise could be on more solid footing. However, if it struggles like the first movie, Costner may indeed need Netflix’s intervention to keep his Western dream from turning into a nightmare.
