New era, new goals

The GIST: This week, Deadline broke some welcome news for the Sporty Spice generation: Bend It Like Beckham is returning to the pitch for a sequel. After witnessing the growth of the women’s game and a chance encounter with Emma Hayes, director Gurinder Chadha was inspired to add to the story that motivated a generation.

• The 2002 cult classic grossed more than $76M globally on a $6M budget, but a 2027 release has a real-life lead-up that can allow a sequel to monetize like never before. New era, new goals.

The comebacks: This isn’t the only sport-inspired classic to retake the screen in recent years. In 2022, Prime Video launched the sole season of A League Of Their Own inspired by the 1992 film. The show notched 500M minutes watched in its first week and was initially renewed for a second season before being nixed due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

• Then this month, Netflix released Happy Gilmore 2, which revisits the 1996 Adam Sandler golf and hockey comedy. The film is packed with a new generation of athletes and celebrities, including Travis Kelce and Kelsey Plum.

• And playing on nostalgia worked: 46.7M viewers streamed the sequel in the first three days, making it the biggest opening week for a Netflix film in history. And this time around, the franchise was ready to capitalize: Odyssey released a hockey stick putter and Callaway released a set of golf balls, while Dick’s Sporting Goods has an exclusive merch collection.

The landscape: The prospective Bend It Like Beckham sequel coincides with a time when sports content is crossing over into pop culture and winning over casual fans. Docuseries like Full Swing and Drive to Survive have drawn in new golf and F1 fans, while Welcome to Wrexham has bagged millions for the Welsh club, success its owners are looking to replicate with FX’s Necaxa.

• There’s also scripted shows like Ted Lasso, which transformed from a TV ad character to a record-breaking Apple TV+ show that inked a $680K licensing deal with the EPL. Fans have attributed Ted Lasso to familiarizing them with the men’s soccer league, something the WNBA may be considering with the advent of its own scripted Peacock series.

Key takeaways: While millennials loved Bend It Like Beckham, it may have unique appeal to Gen Z, which has been proven amenable to consuming sports with a side of pop culture. Perhaps more importantly, both of these generations are driving nostalgia culture and ushering in reboots of iconic films.

• The marketing world has also played into this, with Coca-Cola and Kit Kat reviving classic campaigns for the next generation. With older fans feeling nostalgia and younger fans chasing it, a Bend It Like Beckham reboot timed with the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup is an easy win. Get your boots on.