'Inside Out 2' crosses $1 billion at box office: Kevin Costner's 'Horizon' stumbles
This weekend exemplified the topsy-turvy fortunes of the recent box office. In its third week of release, “Inside Out 2” brought in $57.4 million with a first-place threepeat while “A Quiet Place: Day One” exceeded projections in its debut with $53 million.
But the biggest talking point will likely be the disappointing third-place finish for “Horizon: An America Saga — Chapter 1” with $11 million. Kevin Costner stars, directs, co-writes and produces the lavish, three-hour Civil War-era frontier western, which is planned to be the first of a series of four films. “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2” is set to open Aug. 16.
Having pursued the project for decades, Costner is reported to have invested $38 million of his own money into “Horizon,” while stepping away from the wildly successful Taylor Sheridan-created television series “Yellowstone.” Costner previously bet on himself when he put some of his own money into 1990’s “Dances With Wolves,” which would go on to make more than $400 million worldwide and win seven Academy Awards including best picture and director.
Warner Brothers is distributing the movie for a fee, with Costner and his investors paying for the marketing. Going into the weekend, analysts had predicted an opening weekend of $10 million to $12 million in the U.S. and Canada, while the filmmakers and studio are hoping Costner’s fan base of heartland audiences and older moviegoers will turn up over time.
In winning the weekend, the Disney and Pixar release “Inside Out 2” became the first film since last year’s “Barbie” to cross the $1-billion mark, the fastest an animated film has achieved that goal. The story of a teen-ager learning to deal with her emotions directed by Kelsey Mann, the film’s voice cast includes Amy Poehler, Ayo Edebiri, Maya Hawke, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan.
Paramount Pictures’ “A Quiet Place: Day One” was projected to make somewhere between $40-50 million going into the weekend, besting that with an estimate of $53 million, the highest opening yet for the three-film franchise.
Directed by Michael Sarnoski, who wrote the screenplay from a story co-written with franchise creator John Krasiniski, “Day One” stars Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn, both new to the series.
Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and the fourth film in the series starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, made $10.3 million in its fourth week of release.
Rounding out the weekend’s box office top five was the Indian film “Kalki 2898 AD,” directed by Nag Ashwin, with $5.4 million.
The coming weeks will see the release of “Despicable Me 4,” “MaXXXine,” “Twisters” and “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which should all aid the box office recovery from a dismal summer following the slow start to the movie season in May.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
