The Hollywood Reporter said Horizon filmmaker Kevin Costner is among the biggest losers in Hollywood in 2024.
Of course, since the year is wrapping up, various publications are coming out with their best and worst lists, including THR. Among the Hollywood trade publication’s lists is Hollywood’s Biggest Winners and Losers of 2024, which highlights the stellar and not-so-stellar achievements in Tinseltown over the past year, from movies and music to media.
In the movies category, Costner made the “Lost” category, not surprisingly, over the dismal reception to his ambitious Western epic Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1, which opened in theaters on June 28 and ended its theatrical run in August with a worldwide box office tally of $31 million.
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While a movie flopping in theaters is one thing, Costner’s Horizon expenses will continue to mount since it’s the first of four planned movies in the saga with Horizon 2 already completed and Horizon 3 already in production.
Exacerbating the poor box office performance of Horizon 1 is the film’s budget and who footed part of the bill to make it.
Per THR, the production budget of Horizon 1 was $100 million before prints and advertising costs. In addition, THR reported that the former Yellowstone star spent $38 million of his own money to partially finance Horizon, while two private investors picked up the remainder.
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There is a discrepancy to consider, however. The Numbers reported that Horizon 1 had a production budget of $50 million before P&A as did Horizon 2. If that’s the case, the financial loss should be an easier financial shock for Costner and his investors to absorb.
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The next question is when Horizon 2 will be released in theaters. The film held its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on September 7, yet Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line—which distributed Horizon 1—has yet to announce a release date for the second chapter.
Unfortunately for Costner, Horizon 2 took a big a critical drubbing in reviews out of Venice.
THR also lsited Megalopolis writer-director Francis Ford Coppola alongside Costner as one of the biggest losers in Hollywood in 2024.
“People really appreciate a filmmaker who pursues a challenging passion project and takes a personal gamble to deliver a daring vision to theaters — except, of course, when their projects are cruddy,” THR’s James Hibberd wrote of Costner and Coppola’s films.
Unlike Kevin Costner, Francis Ford Coppola Financed All Of ‘Megalopolis’
In THR’s assessment of Hollywood’s Biggest Winners and Losers of 2024, the publication also called out Francis Ford Coppola for his big-budget flop Megalopolis, which ended up grossing $12 million at the worldwide box office.
Unlike Costner—who self-financed some of his Horizon saga—Coppola is on the hook for the whole kit and kaboodle when it comes to Megalopolis. Per THR (via The Wall Street Journal), Coppola sold his winery and sunk $100 million of his own money into the self-funded and independently produced sci-fi epic.
Also making THR’s biggest losers list is Clint Eastwood, but really at no fault of his own. The trade publication noted the strange way Warner Bros. has treated the 94-year-old cinematic legend, who directed what may be his last film with the critically acclaimed Juror #2.
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Of Eastwood’s treatment by the studio, THR’s James Hibberd wrote, “[Juror #2] ranks as his highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes in three decades — and Warner Bros. wouldn’t even give his film a couple hundred theaters and some TV ads? Are they going to have security kick Eastwood off the studio lot with cardboard box in his hands too? The studio claims they secretly always meant the film to be for Max, as if that makes it better.”
While Costner, Coppola and Eastwood were cited individually, THR noted, “Everybody involved with Joker: Folie à Deux’ lost in 2024.
“The movie’s budget was a baffling $200 million for a film that basically took place on two sets (and eventually grossed $200 million globally, which doesn’t come close to recouping the film’s cost), and even global superstar Lady Gaga couldn’t salvage things,” Hibberd wrote in THR.
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Among THR’s list of Hollywood’s biggest winners of 2024 in the film space is “Zendaya and other former child stars.” Zendaya, of course, starred in Dune: Part Two and Challengers, while Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez are being touted as potential Oscar nominees for Wicked and Emilia Pérez, respectively.
THR also lauded Lindsay Lohan, noting that her “comeback is looking real” with her Netflix hit Christmas movie Our Little Secret and her upcoming reunion with Jamie Lee Curtis for a Freaky Friday sequel in 2025.
In addition, THR said, musical movies scored a win in 2024 thanks to the success of such films as Wicked, Moana 2, One Love and Mean Girls.
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