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The 2024 Olympics in Paris introduced new sports like skateboarding and breakdancing, attracting global attention. Despite the hype, sports-themed movies like "Chariots of Fire" and "Eddie the Eagle" saw only slight viewership increases. Live sports events captured most viewers, but Olympic anticipation did boost interest in related media beforehand.
For the last month, the world has been sporting mad; with all eyes looking to Paris. This year’s Olympic Games introduced new sporting categories including skateboarding, surfing, and climbing, even breakdancing made its debut in 2024. These additions aimed to tap into youth culture and broaden the appeal of the Olympics.
Some of the attention that the Olympics drew was perhaps for the wrong reasons with Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn garnering unexpected notoriety online due to her distinctive style. Similarly, the French pole vaulter's final attempt became a focal point for commentary, as did the peculiar narrative surrounding his performance.
Steve 'Pommel Horse Guy' Nedoroscik was widely celebrated for his unique approach and charisma during the pommel horse event. Meanwhile, Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec's relaxed demeanour during his competition drew notable online attention, resulting in a wave of memes highlighting his nonchalant attitude.
We’ve seen a wave of halo effects across a wide range of events, programming and even platforms. But is the same true for the sport? Has the popularity and visibility of the Olympics on broadcast networks inspired a wave of viewers keen to watch Sports movies?
We looked at a range of different Olympic related sports movies – from the classic Chariots of Fire, to the more serious Munich. The answer to the question ‘did it trend?’ is: it’s complicated, there is undoubtedly ‘a’ trend, but not a direct uplift.
The shows we looked at include: '100 Metros', 'Chariots of Fire', 'Eddie the Eagle', 'I Am Bolt', 'Miracle', 'Race', 'Rising Phoenix', 'Tokyo Olympiad' and 'Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am'.
Aggregating around 80 countries from PlumResearch’s deep datasets we pulled overall hours of content consumed from multiple platforms. Here, we can see a steady increase in the consumption of these titles as Olympic advertising and hype begins to add up from May onwards.
However, June shows a significant slump in sports related content, coinciding with major sporting events, such as the UEFA Euros, European Athletics, US Gold and Copa America. Only after the conclusion of June’s Sporting events do unsated appetites drift back in.
The Olympic Games 2024 opened on the 26th of July and ran until the 11th of August coinciding strongly with a significant drop-off in viewing of our test Movies. Further pointing to viewing habits which are replaced by major sporting events, not augmented.
Despite this, there were a couple of Movies which very clearly showed renewed interest around they Olympics. Chariots of Fire, Eddie the Eagle and Miracle (despite it being a Winter Olympics Movie), all showed uplift just as Olympic hype was reaching its peak.
Clearly, sporting events do inspire viewership of sports-related content, but during live broadcast, needs are clearly sated; fans overwhelmingly prefer watching sports live, which often displaces their interest in related movies or documentaries.
When live sports aren't available, viewers may shift to movies and other sport-adjacent content, especially during times of heightened anticipation. This trend was evident during the 2024 Olympics, where titles like ‘Chariots of Fire’, ‘Eddie the Eagle’, and ‘Miracle' saw an uptick as Olympic excitement peaked. Live events draw the most attention, but the buildup to these events can also generate a noticeable impact on the consumption of sports-themed media.