Movies can be a great source of entertainment and can also be used to educate yourself on various topics. In addition, watching movies can also have some benefits for your health, your business and family at large.
The selection of cultural, cinematic masterpieces and cinema presented in this article will be intriguing and useful for startups and largely educated business harpies, those who are seeking tone- development and laboriously climbing the career scale.
These amazing, changeable, and inspirational movies will be sure to catch your interest. Emotional and accurate, they convey the specifics of the trading and advertising business, reveal the secrets of successful deals and the mystifications of notorious entrepreneurs. They tell the stories of billionaires and their societies. How did each of them begin their trip? What obstacles did they've to overcome? What did they immolate to achieve their dreams?
Some films can push you to original thoughts and conclusions, others will help you come up with fresh and exciting ideas, or even help you make a real breakthrough.
Here are 17 Best Movies Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Should Watch
1. The Founder
Director: John Lee Hancock
Year: 2016
IMDb: 7.2
Ray, a salesman, meets the owners of McDonald's, a burger joint in Southern California. He realises the potential of the place and decides to make it the biggest restaurant business in the world.
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 2013
IMDb: 8.20
Film Search: 8.12
This black comedy crime drama is the memoir of Jordan Belfort, a famous American broker who made a considerable fortune but attracted the attention of the FBI and was convicted of fraud and money laundering. This film invariably leads the top lists of “the best films about business, success, and finance.” It has everything – ups and downs, sex and drugs, brilliant deals and financial fraud, luxurious lifestyles, and the most incredible ways to burn money.
Add to that the inexpressible charisma of the protagonist (Leonardo DiCaprio), the crazy risks, the thirst for wealth, moral issues, and the trade secrets of stockbrokers, and you have one beautiful presentation.
3. Joy
Director: David O. Russell
Year: 2015
IMDb: 6.6
Film Search: 6.7
Here is another real story about Joy Mangano, the entrepreneur who invented the self-pressing mop and founded Ingenious Designs. What difficulties did she have to go through? Problems like finances, personal turmoil, a family crisis, betrayal of loved ones. If you lose almost everything except the irrepressible thirst for success and if you have nowhere to retreat, what’s left? Well, in the case of the film’s main character, building a multi-million dollar business.
4. Boiler Room
Director: Ben Younger
Year: 2000
IMDb: 7.00
Film Search: 7.2
For those who wish to discover something new in the field of sales, this story of American brokerage schemers will be a real gem. Before you are not just another crime drama, but the answer to the question: “How do you earn big money from scratch?” The film does not forget about the price at which a million dollars, expensive cars, palaces, and mansions are achieved.
The film’s characters (a brilliant cast – another thing this film has going for it) are young and aggressive, enterprising and risky, and they’re ready to do anything to succeed.
5. Startup.com
Director: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim
Year: 2001
IMDb: 7.1
Film Search: 6.7
This documentary by Start.com deserves the attention of entrepreneurs and businessmen, as it covers several topical issues in business at once. For example, it focuses on the consequences of incompetent management and incorrectly placed accents in the control of a promising company. The film also reveals the secrets of maintaining a healthy atmosphere and the effectiveness of the team in a crisis.
6. Wall Street
Director: Oliver Stone
Year: 1987
IMDb: 7.40
Film Search: 7.6
The basic principles of business do not have a statute of limitations. They are invariably relevant in our time when a substantial part of entrepreneurship moved to the Internet. A classic film starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen, Wall Street presents success stories and how they lead to prosperity. A bonus for the viewer will be the disclosure of some trading secrets.
7. The Billionaire
Director: Songyos Sugmakanan
Year: 2011
IMDb: 7.90
Film Search: 8.0
If it seems that your hard work is not paying off, money is not flowing to you, and you are close to despair, this film will be an excellent motivator and undoubtedly increase your morale. This story is based on true events and guides us through all the milestones of the hero’s difficult journey. The purposefulness, resourcefulness, and enterprise of young Tom do not always find support in the real world, where adults insist on him receiving the appropriate education and impose their values on him. School, university, tedious work – all this does not attract Tom, his goal is business.
Abandoned studies and mounting debts, successes and terrible troubles, intractable problems and struggles with the authorities – one can never give up on the path to real progress and billions in wealth if you believe in yourself.
8. The Corporation
Director: Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Year: 2003
IMDb: 8.10
Film Search: 7.3
Do you know who rules the world? These giant corporations have absolute power. They can shape the way their customers think. A person’s circle of interests, dreams, opportunities, and very life, is only a package of resources for a corporation to profit.
Business mastodons have reached great heights with their ability to manipulate consciousness, and only a few can resist them. So what is the role of business process leaders? What qualities should they have to avoid mistakes and achieve success?
9. Pirates of Silicon Valley
Director: Martyn Burke
Year: 1999
IMDb: 7.30
Film Search: 7.5
Every entrepreneur and business owner will be touched by this story about two young computer geniuses, a visionary and an inventor – Bill Gates and Steve Jobs – who turned their utopian ideas into companies that conquered the world: Apple and Microsoft. They define the beginning of time. Their dreams come true. The rest of us have the opportunity to observe this exciting process and implement their results to our own goals, desires, and aspirations.
10. Catch Me if You Can
Director: Steven Spielberg
Year: 2002
IMDb: 8.1
Notorious con artist Frank Abagnale has duped people worth millions of dollars with his masterful art of deception. With his scams getting bolder, he is soon pursued by FBI agent Carl Hanratty.
11. Office Space
Director: Mike Judge
Year: 1999
IMDb: 7.7
Corporate drone Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) hates his soul-killing job at software company Initech. While undergoing hypnotherapy, Peter is left in a blissful state when his therapist dies in the middle of their session. He refuses to work overtime, plays games at his desk and unintentionally charms two consultants into putting him on the management fast-track. When Peter's friends learn they're about to be downsized, they hatch a revenge plot against the company inspired by "Superman III."
12. Rogue Trader
Director: James Dearden
Year: 1999
IMDb: 6.4
This drama, based on a true story, follows Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor), a young British man working at Barings, a major investment bank. Sent to Singapore and placed in a position of authority at the bank's branch there, Leeson takes advantage of the thriving Asian market to make risky trades. Before long, he's in over his head and tries to hide the losses. Fleeing the country with his beautiful wife, Lisa (Anna Friel), Leeson eventually has to face the consequences of his actions.
13. Fyre
Director: Chris Smith
Year: 2018
IMDb: 7.2
The Fyre app is created to help book top musical acts, and a grand music event is planned to mark its launch. Supermodels film promos promising tropical luxury and the internet buzzes with anticipation, but the reality doesn't live up to the promise.
14. Margin Call
Director: J.C. Chandor
Year: 2011
IMDb: 7.1
Film Search: 6.7
The financial apocalypse is approaching – the world economic crisis of 2008. Forecasts are frightening – a collapse seems absolutely inevitable. A group of top managers on Wall Street face a tough choice and any decision is fraught with irreversible consequences. They expect a crazy night and the worst hours of their lives.
15. Too Big to Fail
Director: Curtis Hanson
Year: 2011
IMDb: 7.30
Film Search: 8.8
This film is based on real events from the documentary bestseller “Too Big to Fail.” So who were the people who, in the autumn of 2008, decided the fate of the world economy and tried to stabilize the financial markets? At the center of the plot is Finance Minister Henry Paulson. So what decisions did he have to make when powerful banks and huge investment pyramids collapsed like a house of cards?
16. Con Man
Director: Bruce Caulk
Year: 2018
IMDb: 4.5
Film Search: 5.1
The world of big money is always associated with lies and fraud of all kinds. This fact is well known to Barry Minkow, a talented businessman. He makes his way from the bottom to the very top, and his methods, although questionable, are very useful. This swindler’s tale, by the way, is based on real events.
17. A Good Year
Director: Ridley Scott
Year: 2006
IMDb: 7.0
Film Search: 7.7
Max (played by Russell Crowe) is an investment expert and successful stock trader. What does the word “successful” mean in this field? Luck, toughness, vigor, and lack of principles. Max’s life will considerably change when he returns to Provence, where his childhood years were spent, to sell an estate inherited from his uncle.
