“Inside Out 2,” starring anxiety personified, continued to resonate with moviegoers as the No. 1 film in North America for a third weekend. The terrifying prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also struck a cultural nerve, reaching higher-than-expected ticket sales.
But ticket buyers largely rejected Kevin Costner’s three-hour vanity project, “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1,” the supposed start of a series of Old West films that was once headed straight to a streaming service before it made it to the big screen.
Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” was on pace to gross $55 million, for a three-week total of about $470 million in the United States and Canada, according to box office analysts’ estimates on Saturday. The well-reviewed sequel is approaching $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. No movie has reached that sales mark since “Barbie,” which was released in July 2023.
For the weekend, “A Quiet Place: Day One” was expected to bring in about $53 million in domestic ticket sales — more than 30 percent above analysts’ pre-release expectations, based on surveys that track interest. of filmmakers. “A Quiet Place: Day One,” which Paramount cost an estimated $67 million to make, stars Lupita Nyong’o as a cancer patient who, with her cat, Frodo, must navigate a horrific alien invasion with extremely sensitive ears.
Prequels are dangerous. Notable misses include “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The First Omen” and “Lightyear.” Fans already know what ultimately happens later in the story, making it difficult for studio marketers to build excitement, and prequels often lack the stars that helped make the franchises popular. Emily Blunt, for example, headlined the first two “Quiet Place” movies.
The strong showing for “Day One” is all the more impressive given that its studio, Paramount, has recently been mired in piecemeal sales drama. The company’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, ousted a top executive, haggled over a takeover bid, and ultimately called it quits, sending the stock price tumbling. Despite this turmoil, Paramount’s film team skillfully brought “Day One” to market.
Mr. Costner’s much-hyped “Horizon,” which cost an estimated $100 million to make and another $30 million to market, came in a distant third. It was on pace to earn $12 million, analysts said. (Theatres and studios split ticket sales roughly 50-50.) Mr. Costner had hoped that fans of the hit contemporary Western series “Yellowstone,” particularly those in the middle of the country, would flock to theaters. It turned out to be a dream.
Could ‘Horizon’ gain ground in the coming weeks? Box office experts were not optimistic, citing weak reviews. Additionally, ticket buyers gave “Horizon” a B-minus in CinemaScore exit polls, meaning word of mouth will be soft.
Warner Bros. will release the second chapter on August 16th. Mr. Costner has already started making Part 3 and has also announced a fourth installment.
Warner Bros. operates only as a distributor for hire, meaning the studio has invested nothing in the films and therefore has no financial exposure. (The company will take a cut of ticket sales — about 8 percent — as a fee for its services.) To finance the project, Mr. Costner mortgaged real estate in Santa Barbara, Calif., and sought backing from private investors. He left “Yellowstone” to focus on “Horizon.”
“There are movies that beat the odds, break the mold and prove the skeptics wrong,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. “In this case, the mold remains intact: Westerns are out of fashion, and there hasn’t been a successful Western theatrical series in 50 years.”
