All-Girls’ Baseball Classic ‘A League of Their Own’ Returns to Movie Theaters in 2020

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Sports comedy film “A League of Their Own” took the American box office by storm in 1992, the year of its release. Twenty-eight years later, the $132.4 million-grossing movie is considered a classic. The great news is that it is returning to the big screen for a limited time in 2020.

“A League of Their Own” is based on the true story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and chronicles the heartwarming story of two sisters as they are drafted onto the team, then navigates the many challenges, friendships, and milestones the league throws at them.

The movie became an immediate hit among cinema-goers. Not to mention, its main protagonists—played by Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna—all became Hollywood heavyweights in the years that followed the film’s release.

“A League of Their Own” celebrated its 25th anniversary on July 1, 2017, and in April 2020, fans will have the chance to revisit this classic movie on the big screen, courtesy of a collaboration between Fathom Events and TCM Big Screen Classics. The late Penny Marshall-directed film is showing in selected cinemas on April 26, 27, and 29, 2020.

According to WRAL, these special screenings include insights from Turner Classic Movies as well as from current and former members of the All-American Baseball League. The Fathom Events website holds cinema locations and ticket details.

Davis, now 64, played baseball champ Dottie Hinson, whose athletic prowess became the stuff of legend on the pitch. At one point in the movie, Hinson even catches a ball by performing the splits.

“Penny asked if I could do a split,” Davis told USA Today in 2017. “I said to put it later in the shooting schedule to give me time to work up to it. It’s hard to learn that quickly. But I did.”

Recalling Tom Hanks’s now-iconic line as Coach Jimmy Dugan in the movie: “There’s no crying in baseball,” Davis explained that she and the rest of the cast “knew it was hella funny” at the time.

“But,” Davis added, “I didn’t know that was going to be a classic. That line is a signature, right up there with, ‘Hasta la vista, baby.’”

Madonna at the Gotham Awards in New York City on Sept. 9, 1995 ©Getty Images | Victor Malfronte

Madonna played center field Mae Mordabito and, in doing so, cemented her reputation as an actress as well as a world-famous pop star. The film also starred Lori Petty as Kit Keller, Dottie’s sister, and Rosie O’Donnell as the wisecracking Doris Murphy.

The film was O‘Donnell’s first foray from stand-up comedy into acting. She wasn’t nervous about the athletic requirements. “I played with my brothers and in Little League,” O’Donnell told Entertainment Weekly in 1992.

Geena Davis at the 5th Annual Bentonville Film Festival in Bentonville, Arkansas, on May 11, 2019 ©Getty Images | Tasos Katopodis

Of working with Madonna, she added, “I knew that if I met her we would be friends.”

The film’s director, trailblazer Penny Marshall, sadly passed away at her Hollywood home in December 2018 as a result of complications arising from diabetes. She was 75 years old. Her resumé also included film hits “Big” (1988), “Awakenings” (1990), and “Riding in Cars with Boys” (2001).

With the anticipated re-release of “A League of Their Own,” Marshall’s legacy endures. Maybe there’s no crying in baseball, but emotions will undoubtedly run high in selected movie theaters when April comes around.