‘Race,’ ‘Eddie the Eagle’ join ranks of Olympic-themed movies
Eddie (Taron Egerton) and his coach Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman) rejoice in Eddie's triumph in a scene from "Eddie the Eagle." Credit: Larry Horricks
This month brings not one but two new films with Olympic sports themes. Joining “Race,” the Jesse Owens biopic that premiered Friday, will be “Eddie the Eagle,” premiering next Friday.
Eddie (The Eagle) Edwards, a British ski jumper at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, did not fare quite as well Owens did in Berlin in 1936. Owens won four gold medals in track and field. Edwards finished last.
We shall see how those films fare at the box office, where the reigning champion of the Olympics genre is the 2007 figure skating comedy “Blades of Glory” at $118.6 million, according to boxofficemojo.com.
(The movie technically features the World Winter Sport Games, not the Olympics, but we get the point. Wink, wink.)
So, what is the best Olympic-themed sports movie ever? “Chariots of Fire” (1981), a Best Picture winner at the Oscars, is tough to beat, but “Cool Runnings” (1993) and “Miracle” (2004) are contenders.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
More sports media
