Meet the Inc. 5000- Moving the Goalposts - Religion of Sports believes it has the strategy for docuseries success in a suddenly cost-conscious Hollywood.

Religion of Sports believes it has the strategy for docuseries success in a suddenly cost-conscious Hollywood. When it comes to understanding athletes, Gotham Chopra has learned some lessons: Losses are more interesting than victories, the old guard has more enlightening things to say than up-and-coming phenoms, and success doesn't typically happen overnight. It was Serena Williams who served that last point to him after he rallied for seven years to try to get her to do a documentary with his production company, Religion of Sports. "Boy, you're persistent," he remembers she said to him.

- By Reeves Wiedeman - Photography by Maggie Shannon

When it comes to understanding athletes, Gotham Chopra has learned some lessons: Losses are more interesting than victories, the old guard has more enlightening things to say than up-and-coming phenoms, and success doesn't typically happen overnight. It was Serena Williams who served that last point to him after he rallied for seven years to try to get her to do a documentary with his production company, Religion of Sports. "Boy, you're persistent," he remembers she said to him.

Chopra was telling me this story in early July, when that work had finally paid off. In the Arena: Serena Williams, which he directed, was set to debut on ESPN the next night and become the latest docuseries out of Religion of Sports, which Chopra founded with former NFLers Tom Brady and Michael Strahan in 2017.

Their timing was good. In the late 2010s, Hollywood was spending lavishly to fill up the libraries of new streaming services, and unscripted content was cheaper to produce and often caught on with audiences, especially if a recognizable face was attached. Athletes fit the bill. Since its launch, Religion of Sports has produced shows with a range of GOATS, from Brady to Serena to Simone Biles, whose return to the Olympics this summer the company has documented for a fourpart series on Netflix.

Now, Religion of Sports is trying to figure out where it fits into a sports and entertainment landscape that has seen layoffs, losses, and upheaval everywhere from ESPN to Warner Bros. The company has grown from launching a single film to generating $33 million in revenue last year and will have to grow even more to match the ambitions Chopra has for it. “I think of Pixar or Marvel or A24," Chopra says. "I want a brand that means something."