Best Finance Movies on Netflix

Did you know that you can learn about money from some of the best finance movies on Netflix? You don't have to read boring books or attend lectures in cold university halls to improve your financial literacy. 

Anyone with a bank account should know what happens in the financial world. Learning can be a fun and engaging experience!

From documentaries about capitalism, the stock market, and the global economy to fictional TV shows about a deadly fight for a once-in-your-life sum of money, here are the best finance movies and TV shows available on Netflix.

When it comes to finance movies, Netflix has a wide selection. Here are some finance movies on Netflix about the inner workings of the financial world.

Starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale, The Big Short is a 2015 biographical crime comedy-drama film. The movie tells three separate but concurrent stories loosely connected by their actions in the years leading up to the 2007 housing market crash.

The Big Short focused on the 2007 housing market crash, an international financial crisis that led to a major economic recession, with millions of people losing their jobs and many businesses going bankrupt.

In the movie, a group of opportunists profit from the U.S. economic crash by sniffing out the situation in advance and betting against the banks. The Big Short is based on a book of the same name, and the movie's co-writers won two Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 epic biographical black comedy crime film about the high-finance life of Jordan Belfort. Belfort is a former American stockbroker, financial criminal, and entrepreneur. The Wolf of Wall Street is one of the movies about money that’s based on a true story.

The movie recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm builds wealth by engaging in large-scale corruption, corporate greed, and fraud on Wall Street, which all led to his fall.

This award-winning movie features A-list actors like Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Barbie's Margot Robbie.

Inside Job is a 2010 American documentary film about the late 2000's financial crisis. One of the leading financial topics of the movie is how changes in the political environment and banking practices created the financial crisis.

In interviews, Charles Ferguson, the director of the film, said that he did extensive research in preparation for the movie and told the story of "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption."

Narrated by Matt Damon, Inside Job won the Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards.

The 2010 American motion picture The Company Men follows three men trying to overcome corporate downsizing at a major business – and how that affects them, the lives of their families, and their communities.

The Company Men features actors like Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones. The movie has won two awards and has received a total of 11 nominations.

While this 2010 drama isn't based on anyone in particular, it still recalls true events of the economic climate of the United States in the early 2000s.

Margin Call is one of Wall Street's many drama movies dealing with finance and power themes. The 2011 finance film stars Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, and Zachary Quinto.

Margin Call tells the story of a prominent Wall Street investment bank during the initial stages of the 2007–2008 financial crash. The movie's name comes from a business term for when an investor needs to add more stocks or other items to their portfolio if the value has decreased below a certain point.

Even though the film doesn’t depict any real Wall Street investment firm, the plot is similar to some events during the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

The Founder is a 2016 biographical drama directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. The main takeaway of this finance movie is that uncontrolled capitalism can destroy small businesses, giving insights into the importance of managing one's greed and power.

The film follows the rise of Ray Kroc, a salesman who disrupted the lives of the original McDonald's owners and turned the two brothers' innovative fast food idea into the biggest restaurant business in the world.

Grab a burger and some fries, turn on Netflix, and watch this film if you're a fan of McDonald's!

The Laundromat is a 2019 American comedy-drama film based on the book Secrecy World about the Panama Papers Scandal. The cast list of this film features world-famous celebrities like Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, and Antonio Banderas.

When a widow's vacation takes an unexpected turn, she finds herself in a rabbit hole of investigating the financial conspiracy of two lawyers responsible for a money laundering scheme.

If you don't like heavy finance movies, you'll enjoy this movie, as it takes a satirical approach to the finance world.

The Social Network tells viewers how Mark Zuckerberg created a social networking site, Facebook, with his friend Eduardo's help. 

Facebook made Mark Zuckerberg one of the wealthiest people in the world, but the journey to success left Zuckerberg with quite a few enemies. Critics view The Social Network as one of the most successful films of the 21st century, with insights into the hidden side of the financial sector! 

When asked about The Social Network, Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin said, "The movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary."

Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is a 2022 Netflix original about a group of cryptocurrency investors investigating the suspicious death of their exchange's founder, Gerry Cotten, and the $250 million they suspect he stole from them.

Just like other documentary films, this is a well-researched story about the world of finance, investment, greed, and money. Between March and April 2022, Netflix viewers watched the film globally for over 12 million hours.

This true-crime documentary perfectly combines a murder mystery and the stock market.

This documentary is both entertaining and educational. The Tinder Swindler follows three women scammed by a dating app-based swindler as they hunt him down to bring justice and recover the large sums of money he stole from them.

Simon Leviev is an Israeli con man convicted of theft, forgery, and fraud. Between 2017 and 2019, he stole around $10 million from victims across Europe in a Ponzi scheme. Three of these victims tell how Simon began romantic relationships with them.

These relationships had one thing in common – Leviev managed to gain the women’s trust and convince them to give him money. After these relationships ended, each woman was left heartbroken and struggling with money.

From art to music, minimalism has been around for centuries. However, in the last few years, minimalism has transformed into a lifestyle where people reject the American dream, conventional consumerism, and the need to own material goods.

The 2021 documentary The Minimalists: Less Is Now explores the harmful effects of excessive consumerism and advocates for a simpler, more fulfilling life.

With practical tips on decluttering, embracing minimalism, and reevaluating our relationship with material possessions, the documentary offers a new perspective on how our spending habits impact our overall well-being.

Some people have a hard time sitting through full-length movies. If you, too, prefer finance TV shows to movies about money, here are some of our favorites.

Dirty Money is an original 2018 Netflix television series about corporate corruption, securities fraud, and creative accounting. Each of the 12 episodes dives deep into one example of corporate corruption and features interviews with key people in each story.

In case you didn't know, creative accounting is a euphemism for accounting practices that are ethically questionable but technically legal. 

The show's description reads, "From crippling payday loans to cars that cheat emissions tests, this investigative series exposes brazen acts of corporate greed.”

Money Explained is arguably the most popular non-fiction TV show about money. Every episode of this docuseries delves into a different story – gambling, get-rich-quick schemes, credit cards, student loans, and retirement.

The idea behind the show is that money is unavoidable in everyone's life. We should educate ourselves about its possible risks to save ourselves from financial mistakes.

Did you know that the first credit card was invented in the 1950s or that the average person loses hundreds of dollars each year to gambling? Learn about this and more with Money Explained in easy-to-watch 23-minute-long episodes!

Netflix's 2022 original series Inventing Anna documents Anna Delvey, a fake heiress, as she cons her way through New York.

This series is based on Anna Sorokin, a Russian immigrant who convinced the New York elites that she was a German socialite and an heiress to immense wealth while scamming them out of millions of dollars.

Sorokin’s experiences turned her into a public persona. She was a folk hero to some because she took away from the wealthy. Others couldn’t excuse her actions and wanted to see her get justice.

Premiered in 2021, the Korean survival drama Squid Game circles a secret contest where over 450 players, each more broke than the other, risk their lives to play lethal children's games to win a prize of over $33 million.

Each player had financial problems for different reasons and struggled to make ends meet when they all received mysterious invitations to participate in a game. They didn’t know that outliving competitors was the only way to win.

This hit TV show is based on the class differences in South Korea and capitalism. While the show isn’t necessarily educational, it does make you think about what people are willing to do for financial stability.

Have you ever thought about robbing a bank? Watch what it’d be like to rob a bank with a group of cunning conmen with Netflix’s Money Heist.

The series premiered in 2017 and follows a group of robbers who dream of pulling off the perfect robbery – stealing 2.4 billion euros from the Royal Mint of Spain. It’s a tale of friendship, finances, and the justice system.

Money Heist had a revolutionary impact on the real world. Protesters in Lebanon, Iraq, France, and others drew inspiration from the show as they fought for liberation and anti-authoritarianism.

Bad Boy Billionaires: India came out in 2020, and the show investigates the greed, fraud, and corrupt actions of India's most infamous tycoons.

The tycoons in question are Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy, and Ramalinga Raju, who achieved predominant success in their businesses during their lifetime before being accused of crimes.

This docuseries is controversial due to its portrayal of major financial scams in India, and lawyers of the business tycoons quickly filed petitions against the release of the series. 

How to Get Rich is a Netflix original docuseries where Ramit Sethi, a financial expert, teaches regular US citizens how to become rich in today's world. Sethi maintains that if you know a lot about finances, it can't control you or your life.

It's a docu-series that advises on how to balance finances properly, and most importantly, it teaches people to be secure with their lifestyle no matter how big their annual salary is.

Ramit Sethi, a self-made entrepreneur, encourages people to prioritize paying off their debts, creating a spending plan, and deciding their spending wants and needs.

Subscription prices for streaming services can really add up. If you want to earn cash while watching films, we invite you to look into Honeygain. You could earn from the comfort of your couch while you watch one of the films on this list! 

Honeygain pays users to share their internet connection – it’s that simple. Download the app, create an account, and boost your income. This app won’t make you rich, but it’ll help cover some of your daily expenses, such as your Netflix subscription.

Sit down, relax, and start learning while having fun!