Talk:List of highest-grossing sports films/Archive 1

Forrest Gump
is Forrest Gump a sport film Fanoflionking


 * Box Office Mojo gives it a sports genre label here. Maestro2016 (talk) 01:49, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Pokemon
is pokemon a sport can some plaese give source Fanoflionking


 * There are numerous sources referring to Pokemon as a form of blood sport, cockfighting, or dog fighting, e.g. here, here, here, here, here, etc. Maestro2016 (talk) 01:53, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Detective Pikachu
Should Pokémon Detective Pikachu be included in the list, as it's from the Pokémon franchise?


 * No. It is at best a fictional sport. Also the Box Office Office Mojo page for the film does not include sport in the genres listed. -- 109.76.203.41 (talk) 16:00, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Fast & sportus
are all the Fast & Furious films sports film i know the frist few were but i thoght the later films were not? Fanoflionking 17:23, 29 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The same question again of how to reasonably define what should go on the list still needs to be answered. This list in general needs some definition and some limits.
 * The Fast and the Furious series does include some "car racing" and I believe that is why they were included originally but even then I wouldn't say sports was a defining characteristic of the films. The series has gone from heist films to spy films. They are dubious but there are worse offenders on the list

Genre
This article is very vague and not clearly defined. I think it would be a lot better if it was limited based on proper sources. If Box Office Mojo doesn't include sports or at least one "sports related" genre in the list of genres then films should not be on this list.

So for example on Box Office Mojo:
 * 1) Detective Pikachu is listed in the genres Action - Buddy Comedy, Fantasy - Live Action, and Video Game Adaptation, and should not be listed as a sports or sports related film.
 * 2) Jerry Maguire is listed in the genres Romantic Drama, and Sports - Football (Featured) and would be included.

(Including a fictional sport like Pokemon on this list makes about as much sense as including the Harry Potter series because they include Quidditch but this shouldn't be about opinion it should be about what the sources actually support and there many dubious films listed already.) Anyone disagree, and if so do you have any better suggestions on how to improve the quality of this list? -- 109.76.203.41 (talk) 15:58, 15 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I'd like this article to have a clear and rigorous standard as to why a film is included or not but at the absolutely minimum the "sport" should be a non-fictional sport. -- 109.79.169.16 (talk) 09:42, 21 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Box Office Mojo doesn't do a single overall list for "Sports" like this article attempts to do but it does list fourteen different sports based genres. -- 109.79.190.28 (talk) 10:50, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

We had a talk about this Early in the year Fanoflionking  21:02, 3 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I would hesitate to call one question and one answer "a talk" and it did not address the question that Pokemon battles are merely fictional sport, and that even if they were Detective Pikachu (film) is not a sports film (it is a mystery/detective film where the detective happens to go to a fight). This list must set some kind of limit.
 * It might help editors to refer to WP:CATDEF, and only include films where sport is a defining characteristic. -- 109.77.214.112 (talk) 09:59, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Sports Menace
Is Phantom Menace a sports movie is Pod racing a fictional sport and even so it only part of the film we do not have Harry Potter films or Fantastic Mr. Fox both of witch has fictional sports Quidditch and Whack-Bat  Fanoflionking  12:08, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
 * The Phantom Menace is a film that happens to have a fictional sport in it, it is not by any reasonable definition "a sports film".
 * There are rare cases of fictional sports where the film can reasonably be described as a sports film, such as Real Steel which is essentially a fictional form of boxing. Other films featuring fictional sports such as Rollerball can reasonably be considered a sports film, but they were not high grossing films.
 * Here is the list of top 100 grossing sports films according to Box Office Mojo. (Note list is based on USA domestic gross not worldwide total gross). None of the Hunger Games films are included on the Box Office Mojo list of sports films. Real Steel is a fictional version of boxing is included on the list but there does not appear to be any other fictional sport on that list. (Some odd films on that list, apparently Not Another Teen Movie has enough football in it to be on the list by their reckoning.) -- 109.77.214.112 (talk) 11:25, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

E-sport
Again back the same question of setting reasonable limits about what should or should not be include on this list but with all due respect to E-sports it is it's own thing, separate from traditional sports they belong on other lists. Including Ready Player One on this list of sports films is absurd. -- 109.77.214.112 (talk) 09:59, 18 January 2021 (UTC)
 * e-sports is a sport (there are other untraditional sports on this page such as gambling (a mind sport) or dance (a physical sport) there even be discussions about it being in the ‘’Olympic games’’ Fan Of Lion King 🦁 (talk) 18:58, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Definition of sports
Hi all, new to editing and it's this page that brought me into the fold. The range of what is defined as sport seems outrageous. It's a drag to try to read about actual sports movies when it's including all the gambling, death gauntlets, and a beer festival?? Seems like many of these movies fall outside the realm of sports. Tapeeduck (talk) 21:16, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Hi welcome to Wikipedia,
 * There are many sports beyond the common likes of football, golf, tennis such as gambling, game show, E sports
 * Sports can be physical or mind
 * Beer fes could be questionable I look in to it late on
 * Feel free to edit this and other pages need any help you can go to a talk page, contact users on there talk page or go to the teahouse Fan Of Lion King 🦁 (talk) 11:15, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Thanks :) Tapeeduck (talk) 14:38, 30 April 2021 (UTC)

Most expensive
Just to let people know that List of most expensive sports films is now in darts if anyone wants to help with it come and do could do with s bit of help Fan Of Lion King 🦁 (talk) 17:49, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Defining a film as a "sports film"
This has been mentioned before, but the discussions never really went anywhere. Is there anywhere a standardisation of what counts as a sports film for this list? Based on archived discussions, a few of the films have been done on consensus, but many aren't and it's a pretty big WP:NPOV issue if it's just up to the individual editor what is classed as a "sports film". -- NotC hariza rd 🗨 03:10, 30 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Funny you should ask, only a few days before you asked this question someone else brought it to WP:FILM, see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Film. This list is poorly defined and needs to be proposed for deletion. -- 109.76.199.51 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 05:57, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

No tennis?
Anyone know the highest grossing tennis movie? Offensivealien (talk) 02:08, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Searching Category:Tennis films with gave me Match Point with $85.3 million. The significance of tennis sounds low for a tennis movie. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:30, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

what in the world is this list?
I'm sorry, but in what world is Hunger Games or Alita: Battle Angel a sports film?. "Battle Royale" isn't a sport genre. Fast 7 having cars moving doesn't make it a "auto racing" film. Ready Player One is not in any way about E-sports just because it's about video gaming. We need some semblance of consistency here. 74.141.50.157 (talk) 21:41, 16 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Just to clarify - this list/article is incredibly broad about how it classifies a movie as a "sports film". Almost any movie that has displays any sort of athleticism could be on this list with how broad it is. 74.141.50.157 (talk) 21:43, 16 December 2022 (UTC)

Are all of these really sports movies?
This list seems to rely on an overly broad definition of what constitutes a "sports movie," to the point that several of its more notable entries would almost never be deemed as such by a casual audience. The Hunger Games automatically becomes the highest-grossing sports movie franchise in history because they're "battle royale" movies? The latter two films in the franchise don't even feature an actual Hunger Games competition. Slumdog Millionaire counts because it's about a game show? That doesn't even qualify as an athletic activity.

In my view, the list should be overhauled to only include movies in which a sport represents the primary focus of the plot. Casino Royale might involve a poker tournament, but the plot as a whole focuses on various spy-related activities, one of which happens to be sports-adjacent. By any reasonable definition, it's a spy movie, not a sports movie. Perhaps | Box Office Mojo's list of sports films is a good place to start when deciding which to keep and which to cut. Puhala,ny (talk) 22:42, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

Update: What exactly is a "sports film?"
It seems like a pretty frequent issue for this page is the precise definition of what is and isn't a sports movie. In fact, pretty much every archived discussion on this very talk page deals with that in some capacity. I've recently made some major edits to the list, taking into account my own opinions as well as the previous input on this issue, either on the talk page or elsewhere. My criteria were that if a well-defined sport was substantially relevant to the plot of a film, then that film is a sports film. For example:

• The Hunger Games franchise: while they certainly involve athletic and physical competition, "battle royale" isn't a well-defined sport. It seems like there's pretty universal agreement on this one, so I took it off the list.

• Alita: Battle Angel: I'd say this is primarily an action movie, however, a few key plot points are centered around motorball, a fictional form of motor racing (and I'm willing to count fictional sports as long as they have some analogous real-world equivalent). This represents the bare minimum, in my mind, that a film needs in order to be a sports movie.

• Anything involving card-playing or gambling is not a sport. In my view, a sport has to involve some physical activity.

• Esports counts as a sport. Developing the fast-twitch muscles in one's hands in order to manipulate a video game controller or keyboard is, definitionally, a physical activity, albeit a small one. That said...

• Ready Player One is not an esports movie. It's an action movie that takes place inside a virtual reality game.

• Fast & Furious franchise: this is a tough one, especially since it comprises the top four entries on the list (and likely top five with another installment out this year). My rationale here is that when it comes to motor racing, the idea of having a well-defined line between sport and non-sport is almost impossible. If you want to say that only motor racing that's officially sanctioned by some sort of NASCAR-esque governing body counts as a sport, then that knocks a decent number of films off the list, including the early Fast & Furious films, which clearly had much more racing-heavy plots than the newer ones. If you want to count motor racing that isn't officially sanctioned, then any time that two motorized vehicles are trying to go faster than one another, it's technically a race. "Vehicles go fast" is obviously substantially relevant to the plot of every Fast & Furious movie. I'd call their inclusion on the list dubious but not terribly problematic.

Of course, this is all just me synthesizing my opinions with those that I've seen from other editors. This post is meant to explain my reasoning, since I've made some significant edits recently, as well as to be a visible jumping off point for future discussion. I think the dialogue that we've seen already has been very helpful in getting the page to the point it's at now. Puhala,ny (talk) 16:04, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Based on precedent of other titles on the list, Phantom Menace should be on it for the podracing plotline
It's a non-insignificant portion of the movie and is one of the main things people remember about it, even causing multiple spinoff media like games, books, toys. 128.172.245.102 (talk) 20:00, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Dragon ball
Is dragon ball really sports film anyone got any sources Fan Of Lion King 🦁 (talk) 08:40, 8 May 2023 (UTC)

Highest grossing golf movie
The listed movie tin cup grossed $53m at the box office, caddy shack however grossed some $60m. It's unclear to me exactly what criteria are used to determine if a film is a sport film, but I'm not sure how caddy shack wouldn't count. Ilovewiki19 (talk) 03:01, 7 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Good catch -- you're right about Caddyshack making $60 million. However, while I was looking this, I found that the $53 million figure for Tin Cup is its domestic take. Globally, it made $75 million. Thanks for spotting the original discrepancy! Puhala,ny (talk) 03:33, 7 January 2024 (UTC)