Jackie Robinson Biopic Is Most Popular Baseball Movie Ever

The baseball legend is still making big plays -- this time at the box office.

By Jamilah King Apr 15, 2013

Baseball legend Jackie Robinson is still hitting it big — this time, at the box office. "42", the eagerly anticipated new film about Robinson’s integration of Major League Baseball, took in $27.3 million over the weekend. Sports films have often been a somewhat tough sell at the box offices, but Robinson’s biopic offers new hope. "Jackie Robinson is making history all over again!" Gitesh Pandya, head of Boxofficeguru.com, [told the New York Daily News](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jackie-robinson-biopic-42-hits-hollywood-homerun-box-office-article-1.1316339#ixzz2QXcPGreC). "This was the best opening in history for a baseball movie." The film, starring newcomer Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, had some fans on edge. [As I wrote last week at Colorlines.com](https://colorlines.com/archives/2013/04/who_was_the_real_jackie_robinson.html), Robinson left behind a complex political legacy that goes beyond his one heroic act of breaking baseball’s color barrier.