Kevin Costner Spent $38 Million of His Own Money to Make Horizon. It’s Projected to Make $12 Million In Its Opening Weekend.

Kevin Costner spent $38 million of his own money to finance his new Western film Horizon: An American Saga. Well, the early tracking numbers are in, and the news is not good: the first part of Horizon is currently projected to make $12 million in its opening weekend of release on June 28th (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Horizon has been Costner’s passion project for decades, having first begun working on it in 1988. Now, decades later, he’s finally set to unveil the first part of what he ultimately hopes to be a four-installment film franchise that he will write, direct, and star in himself. The total budget for the first two films sits around $100 million, with Costner himself having personally contributed $38 million to the overall budget (apparently by mortgaging his house). The remaining chunk was reportedly financed through foreign sales.

The second part of Horizon is already completed and will be released in theaters weeks after part one, on August 16th. This week (before the tracking numbers came in, mind you), Costner confirmed that production is officially underway on Horizon part three. It’s unclear how the box office performance of the first two films will impact the release plans for parts three and four.

Horizon is set during the four-year period of America’s Civil War (1861-1865). Alongside Costner, the film’s ensemble cast includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Danny Huston, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Georgia MacPhail, Douglas Smith, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jamie Campbell Bower, and more.

Horizon marks Costner’s fourth directorial effort, following 1990’s Dances with Wolves, 1997’s The Postman, and 2003’s Open Range.