Horizon actor says TikTok ‘crap’ has affected audience attention spans

Actor Michael Rooker argued that modern audiences do not have long attention spans, giving a reason for the recent box office failure of Horizon: An American Saga.

The three-hour Western epic, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, only grossed $11 million in its North American box office opening on June 28. When asked if modern audiences have been “TikTok-ified,” Rooker replied, “totally they are.”

“Yeah, of course they are,” Rooker told TMZ. “They gotta get over that crap, come on! Yeah, they gotta learn what it’s like to watch real cinema, please.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy actor encouraged people to have patience with longer films.

Rooker said that audiences are used to 90-minute running times and that they need to “get over that s***,” as not every film needs to be “all fast, cut, cut, cut.” He encouraged people to go watch Horizon, but joked that they should “go to the bathroom before you go in.”

Costner himself has argued that opening weekend performances should not be seen as the be-all and end-all for movies, as “we’re bound to be disappointed.” The actor, who used $38 million of his own money to finance the film, also said he is content with the end result of his movie.

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“Would I love that it would be highly, highly successful?” Costner said to Entertainment Weekly. “Of course, I’d like that. My ego would like that. Everyone would like that. But I am happiest that the movie that you and I are talking about looks the way I want it to look.”

Horizon: An American Saga details a 15-year time span of expanding to the Old West before and after the Civil War, and is intended to have four movies in total. The second film, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2, is scheduled to release on Aug. 16.