Baseball’s Meteoric Rise and Success as a Global Game Explored In Homecoming: The Tokyo Series, A New Documentary In Theatres February 23-24; BD4, Supper Club, Fathom Entertainment, and MLB Studios Join Forces To Bring Film To Audiences
Published by on Nov 18, 2025 11:15 AM
Premiering Through Fathom Entertainment, the Film Reveals How Japan’s Culture, Craft, and Devotion to Baseball Have Helped Shaped The Game’s Evolution Culminating with the 2025 MLB World Tour Featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers And Chicago Cubs
The 2025 MLB World Tour Featured A Historic Homecoming for Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Seiya Suzuki, and Shōta Imanaga, Reflecting The Country’s Deep and Lasting Influence on The Game
Trailer Available For Viewing Here
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES and DENVER – November 18, 2025 – BD4, Banijay Americas’ premium documentary label, Fathom Entertainment, the leading specialty distributor of content to theatrical partners worldwide, and MLB Studios, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) EMMY® Award-winning production label, today announced Homecoming: The Tokyo Series, a feature documentary directed by EMMY® Award winning filmmaker Jason Sterman and produced by Supper Club.
Coming to movie theatres February 23–24, 2026, the film captures Major League Baseball’s 2025 World Tour, when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs opened the regular season in Japan and five of the country’s biggest baseball superstars took the field on home soil for the first time together since joining MLB. For the Dodgers, it was the beginning of a season that culminated in winning back-to-back World Series titles.
View the Homecoming: The Tokyo Series trailer here.
Homecoming: The Tokyo Series celebrates the intersection of culture and global sport, illuminating how the game unites beyond borders. The project represents a bold new model for high-end factual storytelling, combining BD4’s creative innovation and narrative ambition with Fathom Entertainment’s strong theatrical distribution network and marketing expertise, and MLB’s unmatched ability to connect cultures through sport.
Produced by Supper Club, the documentary reflects the company’s signature cinematic style—exploring how baseball mirrors Japan’s values of craft, discipline, and devotion, while revealing the emotion, pride, and artistry that define the country’s deep connection to the game.
“In Japan, baseball is part of everyday life. It’s work, craft, and pride. We focused on the places where the game really lives, from workshops to local fields to people s homes. The Tokyo Series gave us a clear look at how baseball sits inside the country s identity. Getting close to the people who carry the game every day shaped the way we told this story,” said director and producer Jason Sterman.
Filmed across Japan, the vérité-style documentary offers an intimate, ground-level portrait of the people who make baseball a living tradition: Little League players and coaches, superfans, master craftsmen, journalists, and families watching from home. It reveals how Japan took an American invention and infused it with its own values, rituals, and spiritual relationship to work—giving baseball new meaning in its own unique way. As the Tokyo Series unfolds, these human stories intertwine with the anticipation, atmosphere, and emotion of the games, revealing baseball as a true global game.
In a moment unlike any in modern baseball, Opening Day of the 2025 MLB World Tour became a cultural homecoming as Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers joined Seiya Suzuki and Shōta Imanaga of the Cubs— uniting fans across Japan in a shared celebration of pride, legacy, and national identity.
“Major League Baseball continues to transcend around the globe,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business & Media. “The 2025 season started in grand fashion with five Japanese-born MLB players returning home as larger-than-life sports figures. It ended with the great Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and the Dodgers winning the World Series, watched by record-setting global audiences. Collaborating on this film to showcase how America’s pastime has become a world game is an opportunity we couldn’t pass up and are excited for fans everywhere to see.”
”Coming off perhaps the greatest game 7 in World Series history with the Dodgers repeating and Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning the World Series MVP, what a wonderful opportunity for Fathom to bring Homecoming: The Tokyo Series to theatres nationwide in advance of the 2026 World Baseball Classic and the 2026 MLB regular season,” said Charles Kane, programming lead on the project for Fathom Entertainment. “The game has evolved into a showcase for the greatest talents in the world and a true cultural bond between those in Japan and us here in North America. Homecoming: The Tokyo Series is a special look at the story behind some of Japan’s greatest superstars coming home and competing in front of their native fans.”
“BD4 was built to make nonfiction with scale and intention, and Homecoming is a clear example of that ambition. This story demanded a real theatrical presence, and Fathom was the ideal partner to bring that scale and shared audience energy to life,” said Dan Silver of BD4. “MLB’s foresight in supporting a theatrical-first release for a story this layered and globally resonant speaks to how they see the sport and its audience. Making this film with my longtime friends at Supper Club, who match our creative drive, made the experience even stronger.”
Tickets for Homecoming: The Tokyo Series will be available in January 2026 at Fathom Entertainment and participating theatre box offices (theatre locations are subject to change). For more information and to sign up in order to be notified when tickets go on sale, visit Fathom Entertainment.
About Fathom Entertainment
Fathom Entertainment is the leading global specialty distributor of content to movie theatres. For more than 20 years, Fathom Entertainment has pioneered theatrical distribution of events and special engagements across various genres and formats, including feature films, episodic content, documentaries, concerts, and live events. Fathom consistently ranks among the top 10 theatrical distributors in North America, and distributes content to cinemas worldwide. Fathom Entertainment is owned by AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), and Regal Cineworld Group (LSE: CINE.L). For more information, visit FathomEntertainment.com.
About MLB Studios
MLB Studios creates original content inspired by the stories and personalities of baseball. Its multi-platform slate spans film, television, audio and digital, drawing on MLB’s extensive media archive. Recent titles include the Emmy-winning The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox, The Turnaround, The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox, Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series, Once Upon a Time in Queens, Moneyball and 42.
About Supper Club
Supper Club is the independent production company founded by filmmakers Jason Sterman and Brian McGinn who are behind multiple award-winning films and series including Chef s Table, 13TH, Amanda Knox, Sketchbook and Wolfgang. They produced Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u, as well as the official Stan Lee documentary for Marvel Studios. They recently released the Netflix documentary Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds and are currently in production on a documentary series with All-Pro athletes Blake Griffin, Ryan Kalil, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle following their ownership of an American rules football team in Mexico’s professional football league. On the scripted front, Sterman and McGinn have served as Co-Executive Producers on the acclaimed Emmy-winning FX series The Bear.
About BD4
BD4 is the premium documentary label within Banijay Americas, dedicated to culturally resonant, audience-centered storytelling that bridges art, innovation and global impact. Under the leadership of Dan Silver, BD4 develops and produces original documentaries that redefine contemporary nonfiction, blending cinematic craft with cultural relevance.
Banijay Entertainment – Let’s Show the World
Launched in 2008, content powerhouse Banijay Entertainment is home to over 130 production companies across 21 territories and delivers over 17,000 hours of content each year across the globe. An innovative creative leader, in 2024, it launched 250+ new non-scripted titles, an average 110+ scripted titles, 80 shows on streaming platforms, and produced 33 formats in more than 3+ territories.
Imagining and delivering high-quality, multi-genre IP that was born locally and travels globally, the business offers the best stories told the best way, and represents some of the biggest global brands in the market including Survivor, Big Brother, Peaky Blinders, MasterChef, Let’s Play Ball, Rogue Heroes, Half Man, Mr. Bean, Black Mirror, Falling, Football Island, and Shaolin Heroes among others.
Built on independence, creative freedom, collaborative entrepreneurialism, and commercial acumen, Banijay Entertainment and live events business, Banijay Live, operate under the direction of Chief Executive Officer, Marco Bassetti. It is under his leadership the collective businesses have grown to reach €3.348m in revenues and €528m in EBITDA for 2024.
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Contacts:
Nicole Marostica Lou Barricelli
Banijay Americas MLB Studios
[email protected] [email protected]
Eric Becker Chris Albert
Fathom Entertainment Albert Media Group for BD4
[email protected] [email protected]
Elektra Gray
Supper Club
[email protected]