Rocky Loses Best Sports Movie Of All Time To Martin Scorsese’s 1980 Box Office Bomb In 15-Year-Old Poll

Rocky is certainly one of the greatest sports movies of all time, but a 2008 American Film Institute (AFI) poll determined that another boxing movie is actually the genre’s champ. There’s nothing quite like the Rocky movie franchise. Following its release in 1976, the original Rocky went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and has spawned at least eight sequels, two of them part of the spinoff series Creed. In 2020, Guinness named Rocky the most successful sports movie franchise (obviously excluding the Fast & Furious films). Still, another sports movie that failed at the box office is considered by experts to be a better film.

In 2008, AFI released its “10 Top 10” lists highlighting the best movies in a variety of genres. From a poll of “1,500 leaders in the creative community” choosing from a preselected bunch of recommended titles, the results included the John Wayne film The Searchers being named the greatest Western and The Godfather ranking as the best gangster movie. While Rocky failed to top the list of the greatest sports movies, it did place second, and besides, it’s fitting for the Sylvester Stallone-led classic to lose, just like its hero does. Many film fans would also agree that the boxing movie that defeated Rocky is deserving of the title.

AFI’s 2008 List Names Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull As The Greatest Sports Movie Of All Time

According to the AFI’s “10 Top 10,” Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull is the greatest sports movie of all time. Seeing as the list’s results came from a poll conducted in 2008, there’s no certainty that the Rocky spinoff Creed or the racing film Ford v Ferrari wouldn’t clobber Raging Bull today. However, at the time of the poll, AFI’s selected group of filmmakers, artists, critics, and historians chose Scorsese’s Jake LaMotta biopic starring Robert De Niro as its champion. That might seem surprising from a financial standpoint, as Raging Bull was also a box office disappointment when it was released in 1980, barely grossing more than its budget.

Still, like Rocky, it went on to a Best Picture nomination and did win two other Oscars, including a Best Actor honor for De Niro. Raging Bull also tops the list of the best sports movies based on real-life events for its portrayal of the life of Jake LaMotta. The story of his rise in the ring and the drama between him and his brother, Joey (Joe Pesci), and his wife, Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), would be compelling enough, but Raging Bull goes the extra measure with its brilliantly choreographed and cut boxing scenes — the editing even correctly won the black and white film’s other Academy Award, for Thelma Schoonmaker.

Raging Bull & Rocky’s Greatness Reveals A Surprising Reality About Legendary Sports Movies

While Raging Bull knocked Rocky out of the number one spot on AFI’s list of the greatest sports movies, it’s interesting that the former placed second, meaning two boxing movies took the top two spots. Out of all the different kinds of films involving athletics, though, great boxing movies understandably triumph because they deal with a more intimate contest than most other popular sports. There’s a singular hero pushing their mind and body to extreme levels, and it’s their win or loss alone. Also, boxing has been notably cinematic since filmmaking first began, with real and staged matches being captured and then projected for audiences as early as 1894.

Raging Bull and Rocky are part of a long tradition, as boxing films have been the most numerous and successful type of sports movies for over a century, and therefore it’s not surprising they take up two spots in AFI’s poll results — and the top spots at that. Other sports movies that made the grade include the baseball films The Pride of the Yankees and Bull Durham, the basketball drama Hoosiers, the golf comedy Caddyshack, the cycling classic Breaking Away, the pool hall-set masterpiece The Hustler, the horse racing favorite National Velvet, and even one about a sports agent: Jerry Maguire.