sports movies
Despite an uptick in sports movies, the days of Bull Durham, The Natural and Moneyball are long behind us
Wed 29 Mar 2023 15:19 BST
The bang of the bat. The roar of the crowd. The green grass and the brown earth. These are the sights and sounds that bring joy to baseball fans each April, both in person and on screen. Historically, baseball movies are released in the spring to coincide with opening day, when even the most jaded fanbase can snag a touch of romance and optimism. The Bad News Bears, Major League, Field of Dreams, Fever Pitch and 42 were all released in April. There aren’t any to be found this year, and that’s no planning tragedy. Since 2016 when Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! landed with a thud at the box office.
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It’s a strange phenomenon as films about other sports are successful. No fewer than four basketball movies will be released in March and April (Champions, Air, Somewhere in Queens, Sweetwater). Already this year there were successful films about the NFL (80 for Brady) and boxing (Creed III). Other films of 2023 deal with wrestling (The Iron Claw), tennis (Challengers) and football (Next Goal Wins). The only baseball movie on the calendar is The Hill, a faith-friendly true story of a disabled minor league player in the 1970s, but it’s missing big stars and will be released in the August doldrums.
The death of the baseball movie might be confusing to some, but it’s actually consistent with how Hollywood viewed the genre, as a money loser who got lucky in two boom periods. In the years following 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, studios sanctioned a series of imitators across major leagues, overcoming various disabilities and challenges. Jimmy Stewart played a pitcher returning to the mound after a leg amputation in “The Stratton Story,” while Ronald Reagan plays presidential name Grover Cleveland Alexander, who battled epilepsy and alcoholism, in “The Winning Team.” Jackie Robinson played himself in The Jackie Robinson Story, a re-enactment of the season in which he broke baseball’s color line. William Bendix played the game’s biggest hitter (at the time) in The Babe Ruth Story, one of the worst sports movies of all time.
After the public had had enough of baseball biopics, the genre lay dormant for three decades. Occasionally there were hits like Damn Yankees, Fear Strikes Out or Bang the Drum Slowly. Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor have teamed up for the unjustly forgotten bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, a 1976 comedy about a group of Negro Leaguers who strike out on their own as a barnstorming team. That same year, The Bad News Bears pioneered underdog sports comedy tropes — including a team of misfits and a reluctant coach — that would be emulated for decades to come.
Robert Redford in The Natural. Photo: Cinetext/Tristar/Allstar
But it wasn’t until The Natural that Hollywood saw baseball as a profitable venture again. Based on the novel by Bernard Malamud – and notably with a more hopeful ending – the Robert Redford star grossed $48 million and was nominated for three Oscars, paving the way for Bull Durham, Major League, Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams , as well as a wave of children’s baseball movies like The Sandlot, Angels in the Outfield, Rookie of the Year and Little Big League. After that, the baseball movie ebbed again, and while the last decade has produced both a massive hit (Moneyball) and a hidden gem (Sugar), Hollywood seems to have returned to its basic stance of being suspicious of the genre’s profitability.
Historically, numerous forces have conspired to keep the baseball movie low. “They’re relatively expensive and they’re mostly aimed at men, which limits the audience,” said John Sayles, director of Eight Men Out, who recently left Hollywood to write novels. “It’s also about teams, which encourages ensemble casts, while Hollywood prefers to focus on one or two bankable stars.” Studios may also be concerned that they don’t play well abroad. Moneyball grossed $34 million internationally, largely due to the presence of Brad Pitt, but before that, international baseball film releases were rarely warranted. Being the national pastime comes with both advantages and disadvantages.
Recently, new challenges have emerged. In an industry increasingly focused on building cinematic universes, baseball movies aren’t exactly franchise-worthy. The sport itself has received a huge boost in popularity in the US from basketball and soccer, making it even more difficult to sell to American audiences. Not to mention that baseball itself is suffering from a crisis of confidence. With Major League Baseball seemingly introducing new rules every year — from a pitch clock to an automatic runner in extra innings — it may spark a newfound interest in the sport, but it also carries an air of desperation. Something like that makes studio managers nervous.
Brad Pitt in Moneyball. Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures/Sportsphoto/Allstar
However, that’s exactly why Major League Baseball should be on the phone with Hollywood right now to explore collaboration opportunities. “A thriving national pastime needs good movies to support it,” said Joe Posnanski, an award-winning sportswriter and author of The Baseball 100. “If you were to ask a casual fan what the 10 greatest moments in baseball history were, they would have it You can hit Roy Hobbs in the light and Kevin Costner can play tag with his dad or drop the ball to Dottie Hinson. Those moments are in some ways more famous than Kirk Gibson’s World Series home run or the Shot Heard ‘Round the World’.” Even in these bad times, baseball movies are still what real baseball aspires to be. Because of this, fans continue to make videos of their favorite baseball moments aligned with the Moneyball score, such as: Bryce Harper’s playoff home run last fall or Trea Turner’s recent Grand Slam in the World Baseball Classic.
Maybe that’s the way forward for the baseball movie. If a major obstacle to its commercial viability is its lack of an international audience, the World Baseball Classic could help overcome it. This year’s tournament rocked attendance and viewership in the US, but its worldwide ratings were even more impressive. A total of 42.4% of Japanese households watched the WBC final between Japan and the USA, although the game was broadcast on a Wednesday at 8am. Japan is already a baseball country, of course, but the impact in some of the other, lesser known countries – like Australia, Israel, Italy and Great Britain, which won its first-ever WBC game this year – could be even greater. Baseball is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in these countries over the next few years, which of course will create an eager audience for the baseball movie.
Let’s make it as simple as possible: How about a baseball movie set at the World Baseball Classic? You have all the ingredients. Underdogs and powerhouses. Minor leagues that may never sniff out the majors taking on superstars. Former players try themselves as managers. Shocking injuries. Dramatic defectors from Cuban players. The opportunities for drama are endless and the potential benefits for baseball and Hollywood are limitless. The baseball movie may be in crisis, but if the game has taught us anything, know the magic is about to happen.
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