Draft Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed byIvan Reitman
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyEric Steelberg
Edited by
Music byJohn Debney
Production
companies
Distributed byLionsgate
Release dates
  • April 7, 2014 (2014-04-07) (Los Angeles)
  • April 11, 2014 (2014-04-11) (United States)
Running time
110 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million
Box office$29.8 million

Draft Day is a 2014 American sports drama film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. The premise revolves around the fictional general manager of the Cleveland Browns (Costner) deciding what to do after his team acquires the number one draft pick in the upcoming National Football League draft.

The film premiered in Los Angeles on April 7, 2014[2] and was released in the United States on April 11, 2014. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office failure grossing only $29 million against its $25 million budget. The film was Reitman's final directorial effort and Jim Brown's final acting role before their deaths in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Plot

On the morning of the 2014 NFL Draft, Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver, Jr. faces a difficult decision. With the seventh overall pick, he must choose the best way to improve the team alongside handling his domestic issues. Ali Parker, the team's salary cap analyst is pregnant with his child, while the recent death of Sonny's father has caused tension between him and his mother. Sonny had fired his father, a legendary coach under his mother's wishes due to his failing health, taking sole criticism for the decision.

Tom Michaels, General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks offers to trade their first overall draft pick to the Browns for their first round pick in the current draft and the next year, along with a third-round pick the year after. Sonny initially declines but is then mandated by the Browns' Owner to make a high profile move with hopes of exciting the fan base and selling tickets. With the trade, the Browns would acquire the projected first overall pick, highly-rated Wisconsin quarterback Bo Callahan. During the renegotiation, Michaels strong arms Sonny into three consecutive first round picks. Sonny agrees to the deal without consulting the team, causing a rift in the Browns' war room. Cleveland's coach, Vince Penn is strongly behind current Cleveland quarterback Bryan Drew. Penn also prefers the Browns draft Florida State running back Ray Jennings, whose father played for the Browns.

When Ohio State linebacker Vontae Mack receives the news that the Browns have the first pick, he goes on Twitter to lambast the Browns for moving up to take Callahan. During a conversation with Sonny, he tells Sonny to watch the game tape from last year's Wisconsin-Ohio State game, where Mack had sacked Callahan four times. Sonny begins to have doubts about Callahan's ability to perform under pressure, and the Browns' investigations into Callahan's character further fuel these doubts. Offers are made by other teams to get Cleveland to trade out of the first pick, but Weaver sticks with his decision to stay at #1.

When the draft begins that evening, Sonny remains uncertain of the best choice for the team's future. After much deliberation, Sonny drafts Vontae Mack, sparking the entire stadium and sending shockwaves across the league. Many of the other teams had placed Vontae very low in their ratings and now realise their plans must be hastily changed in order to keep up with the unpredictable atmosphere. This causes a great deal of unrest and anger, the most vocal coming from team owner Molina. Livid with Sonny's decision, he flies back to Cleveland immediately intent on firing him from his position. Head coach Vince Penn shares in his anger and disgust, and threatens to resign himself.

When Callahan is not picked first, other teams go with their prospective picks, opening up the possibility that Callahan could fall to Seattle at #7, allowing the Seahawks to draft him and come away with the two extra picks that Cleveland traded to them. Sonny contacts the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are picking sixth, and trades for that pick in exchange for the Browns' second-round draft picks over the course of the next three years. On the clock with the #6 pick, Sonny threatens to take Callahan, knowing that Michaels is feeling heat from Seahawk fans who were upset that they had lost their chance to take Callahan. Sonny finally convinces the Seahawks to exchange picks with Cleveland so that Seattle can get Callahan and the Browns can get all their first round picks back, plus a punt returner. Seattle selects Callahan, at which point the Browns, picking back at the seventh pick that they started the draft with, select Jennings. Through a series of bold moves, Sonny demonstrates his savvy in the NFL draft and reinforces his commitment to the team and the fans. The 2014 season is sure to be an exciting one for the Browns.

At the end of the night, the Browns host a draft party introducing Mack and Jennings. After the celebration, Sonny quickly made his way to reconnect with his mother. Already thrilled for her son's success in the draft, she is even more ecstatic due to her soon-to-be first grandchild. Later, Sonny and Ali celebrate with Browns legends Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar in the luxury boxes on Opening Day as Sonny finally gets to see the team that he built take the field in Cleveland.

Cast

As well, a number of NFL players, executives and sportscasters had cameo appearances as themselves, including: Chris Berman, Russ Brandon, Jim Brown, Rich Eisen, Roger Goodell, Jon Gruden, Bernie Kosar, Ray Lewis and Alex Marvez.

Production

When the idea was first made public, the film was to be centered on the Buffalo Bills, but the studio subsequently changed it to the Cleveland Browns because of cheaper production costs in Ohio.[3]

Crowd reactions of fans at the actual 2013 NFL Draft, as well as Cleveland Browns fans at local bars, were filmed. Cameos with real-life NFL figures such as league commissioner Roger Goodell and ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman were filmed before and after the draft took place. The rest of the film began filming on May 8, 2013.

2014 NFL Draft

As in the film, the Cleveland Browns made splashes at the draft, trading up to select quarterback Johnny Manziel with the 22nd pick. The team also made several deals, trading away their fourth pick to the Buffalo Bills but for their ninth pick, as well as their 2015 first round pick. They later traded up to the eighth pick to draft Justin Gilbert. Finally, after watching Manziel drop farther than projected, they again traded up for the 22nd pick. Chris Berman, who played himself in the fictionalized draft, commented at the 2014 NFL Draft that the events surrounding the Cleveland Browns were more exciting than the film. Unlike the film, the Browns selected the much-hyped Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, as opposed to passing on Bo Callahan, the fictionalized first pick favorite.

Marketing

The first poster and trailer for the film were released on December 23, 2013.[4]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 60% of 163 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "It's perfectly pleasant for sports buffs and Costner fans, but overall, Draft Day lives down to its title by relying too heavily on the sort of by-the-numbers storytelling that only a statistician could love."[5] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[6]

Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper gave the film a "B", stating the film is "a sentimental, predictable, sometimes implausible but thoroughly entertaining, old-fashioned piece."

On the contrary, Jack Hamilton of Slate was harshly critical. "The 'filmmaking' here consists of making sure the camera is pointed at people who are explaining the film's plot to one another, preferably while they are wearing logos and standing in front of more logos," he wrote. He suggested the NFL's involvement had made the film too upbeat. "[It] isn't so much a movie as a movielike infomercial for the kinder, gentler NFL ... In the wake of labor strife, off-field scandals, and the ongoing CTE concussions crisis, the NFL is doubling down on its fantasy of paternalism, and Draft Day is that fantasy's porn film."[7]

Former Green Bay Packers vice president Andrew Brandt criticized Draft Day as "lacking any true depiction of how an NFL team operates leading up to and during the draft", and less realistic about the business of sports than Jerry Maguire and Moneyball.[8] Riley McAtee, writing for The Ringer, noted that the Browns burdened themselves with an additional $7 million in annual salary (as stated by a Seahawks executive in the film) to the fictional Mack – a player who would have been lucky to be drafted 15th overall, compounded by the fact that the Browns have also deprived the fictional Callahan of $7 million in annual salary that he, not Mack, should be making: McAtee also notes the complete ineptness of the fictional executives of the Seahawks and Jaguars, making bad deal after bad deal, calling the latter the equivalent of "a kid who just wet his pants".[9]

The screenplay was the number one script on the 2012 Black List survey of unproduced screenplays. Writing for WhatCulture, David Hynes listed it as the 10th best script of the 2010s, arguing that it "follows one of the central tenets of screenwriting which is, 'thou shalt make things as hard as possible for your protagonist'". However, he was felt that the film's execution failed to deliver on a script that was "as good as it gets."[10]

Box office

Draft Day grossed $28.8 million domestically (United States and Canada) and $1.0 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $29.8 million,[11] against a budget of $25 million.[12] It spent its first two weeks in the Top 10 at the domestic box office.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "DRAFT DAY (15)". Lions Gate Entertainment. British Board of Film Classification. August 7, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  2. ↑ Burton, Danielle (April 8, 2014). "'Draft Day' Premiere: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner Cheered as Stars Take the Field-Like Carpet". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ "NFL Draft movie starring Kevin Costner moves from Bills to Browns". sbnation.com. March 6, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Check Out the Trailer and Poster for Draft Day, Starring Kevin Costner". comingsoon.net. December 23, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Draft Day". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Draft Day". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  7. ↑ Hamilton, Jack (April 10, 2014). "Draft Day movie: Kevin Costner and Roger Goodell star in the NFL's version of Moneyball". Slate. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ Brandt, Andrew (April 16, 2014). "'Draft Day' Reality Checks". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on April 7, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  9. ↑ McAtee, Riley (July 20, 2016). "Even in Fiction, the Browns Can't Get It Right". The Ringer. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  10. ↑ Hynes, David (February 2, 2017). "10 Best Movie Screenplays Since 2010". WhatCulture. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Draft Day". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  12. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (April 13, 2014). "Box Office: 'Captain America: Winter Soldier' Trumps 'Rio 2' With $41.4 Million". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 29, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Draft Day | Domestic Weekly". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
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