Kevin Costner’s Ho-Hum ‘Horizon’ Box Office: Movies Aren’t Television

It’s an old saw in Hollywood that you shouldn’t put your own money into a movie. But I’ve always had a powerful respect for anyone who does. Clearly, it’s a sign of their commitment — that they care enough about what they’re doing to have some skin in the game. I also think there’s an intoxicating roll-of-the-dice payoff in play: If you put your own money into a movie, your investment could hit the jackpot. (That’s what happened with Mel Gibson and “The Passion of the Christ” and George Lucas with “Star Wars.”) And, of course, there’s the admirable idea that those who self-finance are trying to bring a film into the marketplace that a corporate studio said no to. That’s one way that motion pictures can stay adventurous.

So the reckless and committed bravado that Kevin Costner demonstrated by pouring $38 million of his own money into “Horizon: An American Saga” is something I can get behind. Actually, as Costner finally confessed, it might be closer to $50 million; maybe he was initially feeling a bit shy about owning up to that quixotic level of personal investment, since (to repeat) you’re not supposed to do it.

But obviously, Costner can afford it. All the players who do this sort of thing can. They have plenty of assets left over. (That’s one reason I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often.) Costner has always been the definition of a star who cares, who acts in and directs worthy projects, who possesses a reverence for the art of movies. That he poured his own money into a sprawling Western magnum opus has a kind of purity to it.

That said, it would be hard to think of another example of a movie that proved the old saw right as much as “Horizon” does.

The box office returns are now in on “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1,” and taken in a big-picture way, as an indicator of where the saga is heading, the numbers are not very pretty. I suspected they wouldn’t be as soon…