25 Must-Watch Business Movies for Entrepreneurs 2024

Let’s face it: sometimes you need a break from spreadsheets and emails. Even when you’re relaxing, you may continue to learn and grow as an entrepreneur. This is where business movies come in! These 25 Business films are more than just entertainment; they contain valuable ideas, lessons, and inspiration that can help you develop your own empire.

High-Income Skills to learn

25 Best Business Movies for Entrepreneurs

1. The Founder

The true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Kroc soon maneuvers himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a multi-billion dollar empire.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 from 179K

Released in: 2016

2. The Wolf of Wall Street

In 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes an entry-level job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, while still in his 20s, Belfort found his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. Together with his trusted lieutenant (Jonah Hill) and a merry band of brokers, Belfort makes a huge fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions. However, while Belfort and his cronies partake in a hedonistic brew of sex, drugs, and thrills, the SEC and the FBI close in on his empire of excess.

IMDB Rating: 8.2/10 from 1.6M

Released in: 2013

3. The Social Network

One of the most iconic business movies is ‘The Social Network’. The film showcases the journey of Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg as he created the social networking site that would later become known as Facebook. The story unfolds as he faces lawsuits from twins who claim he stole their idea, as well as from a co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.

IMDB Rating: 7.7/10 from 762K

Released in: 2010

4. The Big Short

In 2008, Wall Street guru Michael Burry realized that a number of subprime home loans were in danger of defaulting. Burry bets against the housing market by throwing more than $1 billion of his investors’ money into credit default swaps. His actions attract the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell), and other greedy opportunists. Together, these men make a fortune by taking full advantage of the impending economic collapse in America.

IMDB Rating: 7.8/10 from 488K

Released in: 2015

5. Steve Jobs

With public anticipation running high, Apple Inc. co-founders Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) and Steve “Woz” Wozniak got ready to unveil the first Macintosh in 1984. Jobs must also deal with personal issues related to ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and their young daughter Lisa. Eventually fired, Jobs launched NeXT Inc. and prepared to release a new computer model in 1988. Ten years later, Jobs is back at Apple Inc. and about to revolutionize the industry once again with the iMac.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 from 179K

Released in: 2015

6. Pirates of Silicon Valley

The accomplishments of visionaries Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) revolutionize the 20th century.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 from 25K

Released in: 1999

7. Startup.com

Picking up where today’s headlines leave off, Startup.com examines the current troubled state of the Internet revolution, in which inflated ideals and dreams of instant wealth have been supplanted by harsh economic realities and broken promises. Graced with sensitive storytelling and a dynamic, intimate cinéma-vérité style, the film also manages to personalize this crisis with intensely private views of the people involved.

IMDB Rating: 7.1/10 from 3.5K

Released in: 2001

8. Joy

A story of a family across four generations centered on the girl who becomes the woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who founded a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Facing betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence, and the scars of love, Joy becomes a true boss of family and enterprise. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces.

IMDB Rating: 6.6/10 from 146K

Released in: 2015

9. Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the infamous unraveling of the Fyre music festival.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 from 52K

Released in: 2019

10. American Hustle

Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) dabbles in forgery and loan-sharking, but when he falls for fellow grifter Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), things change in a big way. Caught red-handed by FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), Irv and Sydney are forced to work undercover as part of DiMaso’s sting operation to nail a New Jersey mayor (Jeremy Renner). Meanwhile, Irv’s jealous wife (Jennifer Lawrence) may be the one to bring everyone’s world crashing down. Based on the 1970s Abscam case.

IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 from 501K

Released in: 2013

11. The Corporation

This documentary begins with an unusual detail that came from the 14th Amendment: Under constitutional law, corporations are seen as individuals. So, filmmaker Mark Achbar asks, what type of person would a corporation be? The evidence, according to such political activists as Noam Chomsky and filmmaker Michael Moore and company heads like carpet magnate Ray Anderson, points to a bad one, as the film aims to expose IBM’s Nazi ties and these large businesses’ exploitation of human rights.

IMDB Rating: 8.0/10 from 22K

Released in: 2003

12. Boiler Room

Welcome to the infamous “boiler room” — where twenty-something millionaires are made overnight. Here, in the inner sanctum of a fly-by-night brokerage firm, hyper-aggressive young stock jocks peddle to unsuspecting buyers over the phone — and are rewarded with mansions, Ferraris, and more luxury toys than they know what to do with. In this unassuming Long Island enclave, Gen Xers chase the green at breakneck speeds, sometimes one step ahead of the law.

IMDB Rating: 7.0/10 from 57K

Released in: 2000

13. Casino

In the early-1970s Las Vegas, low-level mobster Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he’s a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with his loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), his ex-hustler wife Ginger (Sharon Stone), her con-artist ex Lester Diamond (James Woods) and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger. Martin Scorsese directs this adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s book.

IMDB Rating: 8.2/10 from 566K

Released in: 1995

14. Inside Job

The global financial meltdown that took place in Fall 2008 caused millions of job and home losses and plunged the United States into a deep economic recession. Matt Damon narrates a documentary that provides a detailed examination of the elements that led to the collapse and identifies key financial and political players. Director Charles Ferguson conducts a wide range of interviews and traces the story from the United States to China to Iceland to several other global financial hot spots.

IMDB Rating: 8.2/10 from 79K

Released in: 2010

15. War Dogs

With the war in Iraq raging on, a young man (Jonah Hill) offers his childhood friend a chance to make big bucks by becoming an international arms dealer. Together, they exploit a government initiative that allows businesses to bid on U.S. military contracts. Starting small allows the duo to rake in money and live a high life. They soon find themselves in over their heads after landing a $300 million deal to supply Afghan forces, a deal that puts them in business with some very shady people.

IMDB Rating: 7.1/10 from 257K

Released in: 2016

17. Margin Call

When an analyst uncovers information that could ruin them all, the key players (Kevin Spacey, and Paul Bettany) at an investment firm take extreme measures to control the damage.

IMDB Rating: 7.1/10 from 145K

Released in: 2011

18. The Aviator

Billionaire and aviation tycoon Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a successful public figure: a director of big-budget Hollywood films such as “Hell’s Angels,” a passionate lover of Hollywood leading ladies Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale), and an aviation pioneer who helps build TWA into a major airline. But in private, Hughes remains tormented, suffering from paralyzing phobias and depression. The higher he rises, the farther has to fall.

IMDB Rating: 7.5/10 from 385K

Released in: 2004

19. Jerry Maguire

When slick sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) has a crisis of conscience, he pens a heartfelt company-wide memo that promptly gets him fired. Desperate to hang on to the athletes that he represents, Jerry starts his own management firm, with only single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) joining him in his new venture. Banking on their sole client, football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Jerry and Dorothy begins to fall in love as they struggle to make their business work.

IMDB Rating: 7.3/10 from 288K

Released in: 1996

20. Moneyball

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland A’s, one day has an epiphany: Baseball’s conventional wisdom is all wrong. Faced with a tight budget, Beane must reinvent his team by outsmarting the richer ball clubs. Joining forces with Ivy League graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), Beane prepares to challenge old-school traditions. He recruits bargain-bin players whom the scouts have labeled as flawed, but have game-winning potential. Based on the book by Michael Lewis.

IMDB Rating: 7.6/10 from 467K

Released in: 2011

21. Flash of Genius

When college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear) develops an intermittent windshield wiper, he believes he, his wife (Lauren Graham), and their children will be set for life. Though the invention was a big hit with automakers in 1960s Detroit, Kearns finds himself forced out of the picture. Determined to collect the recognition and financial reward due him, he wages an arduous legal battle with the auto industry.

IMDB Rating: 7.0/10 from 18K

Released in: 2008

22. Office Space

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.”

IMDB Rating: 7.6/10 from 289K

Released in: 1999

23. The Pursuit of Happyness

Life is a struggle for single father Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Evicted from their apartment, he and his young son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) find themselves alone with no place to go. Even though Chris eventually lands a job as an intern at a prestigious brokerage firm, the position pays no money. The pair must live in shelters and endure many hardships, but Chris refuses to give in to despair as he struggles to create a better life for himself and his son.

IMDB Rating: 8.0/10 from 564K

Released in: 2006

24. Billionaire Boys Club

A group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s establishes a get-rich-quick scam that turns deadly.

IMDB Rating: 5.6/10 from 15K

Released in: 2018

25. The Startup Kids

Young web entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe discuss their success and how to start a business.

IMDB Rating: 6.6/10 from 659

Released in: 2012

Business movies have a unique ability to combine drama, ethics, ambition, and the harsh truths of the corporate world, making them not only entertaining but also profoundly enlightening. From Jordan Belfort’s thrilling rise and fall in “The Wolf of Wall Street” to the game-changing techniques in “Moneyball,” these films provide a glimpse into the highs and lows of the financial world. Whether you enjoy stories of entrepreneurial zeal, such as “The Founder,” or cautionary tales of corporate greed, such as “The Big Short,” the genre has something for everyone.

So, which business movies have you seen? Have any of these films inspired you, altered your outlook on business, or simply delighted you with their compelling stories? Share your favorites and recommendations in the comments below.

FAQ:

-What are some must-watch business movies?

- “The Wolf of Wall Street”
- “The Social Network”
- “Wall Street”
- “The Big Short”
- “Moneyball”
- “Jerry Maguire”
- “Boiler Room”
- “Glengarry Glen Ross”
- “Steve Jobs”
- “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”