From Rocky Balboa fights to cornfield baseball games, virtually every mainstream sport has received a few moments in the Hollywood spotlight. But it’s hard to think of a sport more intrinsically intertwined with cinema than bodybuilding. Football fans might enjoy watching “Remember the Titans” on an offseason afternoon, but cinematic recreations are unlikely to scratch the same itch as live games on an NFL Sunday. Bodybuilding, on the other hand, has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Hollywood ever since a certain Austrian named Arnold Schwarzenegger set foot in California. For the past half century, documentaries about the sport have often drawn more mainstream attention than any live broadcast of an actual competition.

In many fans’ eyes, the sport of bodybuilding first gained mainstream legitimacy with the release of “Pumping Iron,” George Butler and Robert Fiore’s landmark 1977 documentary about Schwarzenegger’s preparations for the Mr. Olympia competition. In addition...