The 10 most popular sports in Hollywood movies named

From classics such as Rocky to comedies like Cool Runnings, sports provide the stories behind many popular movies.

But which sport takes first place as Hollywood’s favourite?

New research by OLBG.com has looked at over 100 sports movies and ranked them based on box office takings, audience scores and critics' scores to reveal the most popular sport in Hollywood.

So, according to the research, the the top 10 most popular sports in Hollywood are: boxing, baseball, American football, basketball, football, ice hockey, athletics, wrestling, motor racing, and golf.

Classics

With the likes of the Rocky franchise and other classics such as Million Dollar Baby, The Fighter and Raging Bull, boxing is the most popular sport in Hollywood.

Of the sporting movies analysed, 20 of them were based around boxing, altogether making a huge $3.727 million in box office takings and receiving an average rating of 79.

Elsewhere, audiences and critics alike love a baseball movie, with average critic scores of 81 and audience ratings of 79 pushing the sport to second place on the Hollywood leader board. Movies such as Dreams, Moneyball and A League of Their Own make up the 15 sporting movies on the list, taking a total of $1.445 billion at the box office.

American football is another firm favourite in Hollywood, ranking third thanks to movies such as Jerry Maguire, The Blind Side and Remember the Titans featuring in the 13 movies listed, which took a total of $2.132 million at the box office.

The research also revealed the top 10 best performing sports movies of all time, which are: Rocky, Ford v Ferrari, Million Dollar Baby, Jerry Maguire, Creed, The Fighter, Rocky IV, Raging Bull, The Karate Kid, and Moneyball.

You can access the full research by OLBG.com here.

*Pictured above, a scene from Rocky – the top performing sports movie of all time.