Ep. 53: What Happened to the Sports Movie?

Throughout the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, sports movies were one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and bankable genres. Recently though, things seem to have changed. Of the top 50 grossing sports movies of all-time, only 3 have come in this decade with Creed, The Fighter, and 42 barely cracking the list. So what’s going on? Have the quality of sports movies declined? Are studio’s making less of them? Or have audience tastes just changed? To figure it out, Rob sits down with The Ringer’s Adam Nayman. Nayman discusses how the definition of a “sports film” has evolved over the years, why the genre has seen such a steep decline this decade despite hitting with the critics, and why making more baseball and boxing movies probably isn’t the answer. He also talks about how sports documentaries have thrived in the place of narrative sports films, how sports movies have likely been a casualty of the decline of the mid-budget film, and which director he would like to see revitalize the genre.