Is 'Draft Day' a classic in making?

No actor has more sports movie bona fides than Kevin Costner, so his opinions on the subject merit attention.

Still, he has gone out on a bit of a limb in saying his new movie, “Draft Day,” which opens April 11, has “a chance to be a classic’’ on the order of his other films.

“This took its place right along for me with ‘For Love of the Game,’ ‘Bull Durham,’ ‘Field of Dreams,’’’ he said during a news conference two days before the Super Bowl.

This past week, he said it again: “I think it honestly does take its place among those movies.’’

Hey, the guy has a movie to sell. But “Draft Day’’ does do a pretty good job of dramatizing an event that Costner said can “look like paint drying to an audience.’’

And it has a better shot at historical consideration if one compares it only to football flicks, a genre with far less competition than baseball or boxing.

Purely in box office terms, it appears having Adam Sandler in the lineup helps. Here are the top-five grossing football movies (not inflation adjusted), according to boxofficemojo.com:

1. The Blind Side (2009); 2. The Waterboy (1998); The Longest Yard (2005); Remember the Titans (2000); Any Given Sunday (1999).