The highest-grossing sports movies of all time are heavily influenced by the "Cars" animated franchise, with "Cars 2" (2011) leading the worldwide box office at nearly $560 million. The original "Cars" (2006) and "Cars 3" (2017) also appear in both the top 10 worldwide and domestic lists. While Box Office Mojo includes animated films, live-action motorsports movies like "Pegasus 2" (2024) from China, with $422.9 million worldwide, and the upcoming "F1: The Movie" (2025), projected to gross $509.7 million worldwide and $165.6 million domestically, are significant contenders.
Football films, despite the sport's popularity in the U.S., have a smaller global footprint, with only one in the top 10 worldwide. However, four football movies make the domestic top 10: "The Blind Side" (2009) is the all-time domestic leader at $256 million, followed by "The Waterboy" (1998) at $161.5 million, "The Longest Yard" (2005) at $158.1 million, and "Jerry Maguire" (1996) at $154 million.
Boxing also performs well, with "Creed III" (2023) earning $156.2 million domestically and China's "Yolo" (2024) grossing $433.6 million worldwide. The "Rocky" franchise, particularly the original "Rocky" (1976), which grossed $225 million unadjusted, holds a strong historical presence, especially when adjusted for inflation, with the original "Rocky" at an estimated $967.6 million and "Rocky IV" at $775.0 million worldwide, according to inflation-adjusted data as of March 2023.
