Baseball's Meteoric Rise and Success As A Global Game Explored in New Documentary Homecoming: The Tokyo Series

BD4, Supper Club, Fathom Entertainment, and MLB Studios Join Forces To Bring Film to Audiences In Theatres February 23-24, 2026

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, November 18, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- 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.

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.

Nicole Marostica
Banijay Americas
nicole.marostica@banijayamericas.com
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