All 5 Movies Directed by Kevin Costner, Ranked by IMDb

Even though it’s been only a couple of years since Kevin Costner left Yellowstone to pursue his own directorial ambitions, it doesn’t mean he’s been a newcomer in moviemaking.

With a career span of more than four decades, Costner started directing his own movies back in the 1990s, eventually even making it to a whole collection of Oscars and many other prestigious awards.

While there’s still some time left before his Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 3 hits theatres, here are some other options for you in case you have yet to discover Costner’s directorial works.

5. ‘The Postman’ (1997)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Postman holds scores of 14% and 51% from critics and viewers
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 6.1/10

Based on a 1985 novel of the same name and also starring Costner in a leading role, The Postman is set in a post-apocalyptic neo-Western United Stated sometime near 2013.

The movie follows an unnamed nomadic traveler who, after discovering a United States Postal Service uniform on his way, decides to deliver an old mail that helps survivors reconnect with their past.

Coming after Costner’s extremely successful Western Dances With Wolves, The Postman became one of the actor-director’s biggest flops that grossed only $30 million against a budget of $80 million.

To make it worse, the movie was an absolute winner of the Golden Raspberry Award, securing all five statuettes out of its five nominations.

4. ‘Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1’ (2024)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 keeps scores of 51% and 70% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie rates 6.6/10

The first part of an epic Western franchise that Costner started developing back in the 1980s, the movie stars Costner as Hayes Ellison, one of the characters who navigate through hardships of life in the Wild West amidst the ongoing American Civil War.

Despite becoming its creator’s biggest fulfilled dream, Horizon: An American Saga also turned out to be for Costner just the same as Megalopolis for Francis Ford Coppola, with the former putting all of his money into his passion project which grossed $38 million against its budget of $50 million.

However, Horizon: An American Saga so far gets to live on for at least three more installments that will arrive in theatres sometime in the future.

3. ‘Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2’ (2024)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 has a score of 54% from critics
• On IMDb, the movie’s rating is 7.2/10

Shot back-to-back with the franchise’s first movie, Chapter 2 hasn’t yet reached cinemas worldwide, though already had time to perform poorly with critics.

The future movie sees Costner and many other members of the leading cast reprising their roles and follows further adventures of the lead characters, picking the story up right where Chapter 1 left it off.

Even though the sequel risks repeating its predecessor’s fate, it’s pretty clear that financial troubles are the last thing Costner cares about, with the actor boasting of an incredible level of determination to wrap the story up no matter what.

2. ‘Open Range’ (2003)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Open Range holds scores of 79% and 84% from critics and viewers
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 7.4/10

This time starring Kevin Costner opposite another lead Robert Duvali, Open Range follows the latter’s seasoned cattleman Boss Spearman who, alongside his cowhands Charley and Mose, drives a cattle across the country when Moss suddenly disappears.

Having figured that he got into trouble after encountering an influential landowner, Boss Spearman and Charley decide to embark on their own search and bring Moss’ torturers to justice.

The movie came as a salvation after The Postman’s failure and grossed around $68 million against its budget of $22 million.

1. ‘Dances With Wolves’ (1990)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, Dances With Wolves keeps a score of 87% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie rates 8.0/10

Kevin Costner’s biggest pride and joy to-date, Dances With Wolves is yet another epic Western that follows Costner’s 1st Lieutenant John J. Dunbar who, upon traveling to the American frontier, discovers a group of Lakota living there.

With time, however, he gets more intrigued about the way those people live, develops a friendship with them and chooses to leave his past life behind to stay with them until Union soldiers show up with claims for the land.

The movie was a massive box office hit, making more than $420 million around the world, and eventually won 7 Academy awards, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.