Want to learn more about finance and businesses from movies? Watch how the finance and economics theories play out in the real world through these movies. Instead of the pseudo-banker or imaginative investor, learn from these movies which are approved by finance professors for their accurate industry depictions. The list was compiled from the survey results of 80 finance professors. 

1) The Big Short (2015)

This Oscar-winning film focuses on a few American financial professionals who predicted and (most importantly) profited from the housing and credit bubble in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It focuses not only on the market events that lead to the Global Financial Crisis but also the conflicting ethics and emotions when the financial professionals predicted the crisis in advance. The film stars Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt.

2) Other People’s Money (1991)

Other People’s Money is an American comedy-drama movie about a corporate raider who buys up businesses and sells their assets. The story starts where he was buying up shares of an undervalued company but ends up falling in love with the company founder’s family member. 

3) Trillion Dollar Bet (2000)

Trillion Dollar Bet shows how pair trades can go terribly wrong. It talks about one of the greatest formulas in finance, the Black-Scholes option pricing model, which won the prestigious Nobel Prize. 

The movie/documentary shows how the hedge fund founded by the Nobel Prize winner, named Long Term Capital Management, which assured to have high returns with low risk.

The hedge fund ends up where the mathematical models blew up and had to be bailed out by a bank consortium to prevent systemic risk in the financial markets.

4) Too Big to Fail (2011)

Too Big to Fail explores the 2008 Global Financial Crisis from the viewpoint of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. It offers a close look behind the scenes to save Lehman Brothers and conversations with the Secretary of the Treasury, Chair of Fed (Ben Bernanke), and President of New York Fed in how they seek solutions for Lehman’s and the U.S. economy.

5) Barbarians at the Gate (1993)

Barbarians at the Gate is a movie based on boom regarding the leveraged buyout (LBO of RJR Nabisco, a major tobacco company. The president of Nabisco decided to buy the company himself. However, a bidding war began as the other companies make similar offers. 

Enjoy the finance movies and pick up some knowledge on finance along the way!