Francis Ford Coppola Megalopolis was an absolute disaster at the box office, but the failure of Kevin Costner’s film Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 proves that it could have been much worse. Megalopolis and Horizon: an American saga both followed an eerily similar path to the big screen. In both cases, a legendary figure from the film industry (Godfather director Coppola and yellow stone star Costner, respectively) invested their own money into a ridiculously ambitious passion project that ultimately didn’t do very well at the box office when its creators finally managed to pull it off.
None Horizon nor Megalopolis it almost recouped its production budget at the box office (not to mention marketing and exhibition costs). Horizon cost $50 million to produce, 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 was dubbed “Mega-flop-olis.” It cost at least $120 million to produce, financed entirely by Coppola, and grossed just $13,312,419 (via Mojo Box Office). But Megalopolis has an advantage over Horizon.
Kevin Costner’s Skyline Has No Guarantee of Completion (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 almost no one will see Megalopolis and he barely recovered 10% of his investment, Coppola can rest easy knowing his vision is complete. Coppola can relax and enjoy the fact that, whether it was a success or not, he has finally made the film that had been rattling around in his head for four decades and released it to the world. Megalopolis Now it’s out there in all its glory for a cult fanbase to eventually rediscover.
Unfortunately for Costner, this is not the case Horizon. The film that flopped at the box office this year is just the first of four planned Horizon films. Now that the first chapter has flopped and the second chapter has been shelved indefinitely, Costner Horizon the series will likely remain unfinished. Even though Chapter 2 eventually sees the light of day, it’s unlikely that Costner will get the financing needed to make the third and fourth films and complete the saga, because public interest clearly isn’t there.
Horizon and Megalopolis will serve as a warning to other big names looking to self-finance films
It turns out that working outside the system is an easy way to lose money
The box office failure of Horizon and Megalopolis will probably serve as a warning to any other big 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 huge moneymaker. Not having to respond to notes from studio executives and the corporate marketing department must be refreshing, but they hand out those notes for a reason.: They understand the market and what the public is looking for — and, apparently, Horizon and Megalopolis it is not?
Source: The Numbers, Mojo Box Office