Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis has been an unmitigated box office disaster, but the failure of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 proves it could’ve been so much worse. Megalopolis and Horizon: An American Saga both took a weirdly similar path to the big screen. In both cases, a legendary figure in the film industry (Godfather director Coppola and Yellowstone star Costner, respectively) put their own money into a ridiculously ambitious passion project that ultimately didn’t do very well at the box office when their creators finally managed to get them made.
Neither Horizon nor Megalopolis came close to making back their production budget at the box office (let alone the marketing and exhibition costs). Horizon cost $50 million to produce, with some of it coming out of Costner’s own pocket, and grossed just $31,497,309 (via The Numbers). Megalopolis was an even bigger box office bomb, so much so that it’s been dubbed “Mega-flop-olis.” It cost at least $120 million to produce, financed entirely by Coppola, and it’s grossed only $13,312,419 (via Box Office Mojo). But Megalopolis has one advantage over Horizon.
Kevin Costner's Horizon Isn't Guaranteed To Be Completed (Unlike Coppola's Megalopolis)
Megalopolis Is Coppola's Finished Vision, But Horizon Is Just The First Chapter Of Costner's Vision
Although it must be disappointing that hardly anyone is going to see Megalopolis and he’s barely made back 10% of his investment, Coppola can rest easy knowing that his vision is complete. Coppola can sit back and enjoy the fact that, whether it was successful or not, he finally made the movie that had been rattling around in his head for four decades and put it out into the world. Megalopolis is now out there in all its glory for a cult fan base to eventually rediscover.
Francis Ford Coppola made the movie he wanted to make with Megalopolis — but its box office failure means it'll be a lot tougher to make his next one.
Unfortunately for Costner, that’s not the case for Horizon. The film that bombed at the box office this year is just the first of four planned Horizon movies. Now that the first chapter has flopped and the second chapter has been indefinitely shelved, Costner’s Horizon series will likely remain unfinished. Even if Chapter 2 does eventually see the light of day, it’s unlikely that Costner will get the funding needed to make the third and fourth films and complete the saga, because the audience interest clearly isn’t there.
Horizon & Megalopolis Will Serve As A Warning To Other Big Names Looking To Self-Finance Movies
As It Turns Out, Working Outside The System Is An Easy Way To Lose Money
The box office failure of Horizon and Megalopolis will likely serve as a warning to any other big-name Hollywood filmmakers looking to self-finance their own passion projects. While it’s creatively liberating to work outside the system, it doesn’t seem to be a big moneymaker. Not having to answer the notes of studio executives and a corporate marketing department must be refreshing, but they give out those notes for a reason: they understand the market and what audiences are looking for — and, apparently, Horizon and Megalopolis ain’t it.
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is a Western film directed by Kevin Costner, and sees him in the starring role. The film explores multiple generations surrounding the expansion of the American West before and after the Civil War. Horizon is the first in a series of four films, all of which were greenlit by Warner Bros. Pictures.
English (US) ·