in less than 3 weeks the future of Kevin Cosner's Horizon an American Saga franchise will ultimately be determined due to Horizon chapter 1's dismal box office performance and conflicting reviews when it debuted in theaters on June 28th 2024 the second movie in Cosner's burgeoning Western franchise was withdrawn from its scheduled August 16th 2024 release at the upcoming Venice Film Festival Horizon chapter 2 will now have its International Premiere outside of competition although Horizon an American Saga chapter 1's recent VOD success is encouraging it might not have a significant long-term impact on the horizon franchise ultimately Horizon 2 must perform above expectations and be a major step up from Horizon 1 if cner is to have any chance of producing and directing Horizon 3 and 4 as he had originally envisaged if Horizon 2 fails any prudent investor will not be inclined to throw money at Horizon's subsequent additions the Venice premiere of horizon an American Saga chapter 2 might preserve the franchise everything now revolves around Costner's reaction to Horizon 2 at the Venice Film Festival one of the main lifelines that could help preserve the franchise is Horizon 2 if it receives excellent reviews it would Breathe much needed life into Costner's franchise which seemed doomed from the start back in June it would also have a significant impact on when Horizon chapter 2 finally gets a wide theatrical release following its lengthy delays furthermore Horizon 2's success might be the key to helping cner secure funding for his anticipated third and fourth films everything now revolves around Cosner's reaction to Horizon 2 at the Venice film f Festival even with favorable reviews from audiences and Cosner's enormous star power the franchise might not succeed as much as planned if Horizon 2 ends up dividing critics once more the most likely scenario is that cner will use chapter 1's VOD success to negotiate an exclusive streaming agreement with Paramount and CBS as this might be the only way he can maintain his original franchise plan if things don't work out for chapter 2's Venice Premiere Horizon 3 and 4 might never happen in the event that Horizon 2 is a box office failure and has a disastrous International debut on September 7th 2024 at the Venice Film Festival Cosner can likely write the other two films out as non-existent Cosner's audacious production and distribution plan mostly relied on the expectation that his debut film would be as acclaimed and well-liked as his Yellowstone series which proved to be untrue in the end Cosner has already in invested millions of his own money to get the first two Horizon films to the big screen but unless chapter 2 rapidly reverses the current situation it could not be possible in the near future