As you can probably tell, I am a huge movie fan and love to have a film on while I work, including while writing this blog!
Here are my top 5 picks for business films, number 2 is a brand new film for April 2023!
5. You’ve Got Mail
“Go to the mattresses.’ You’re at war. ‘It’s not personal, it’s business. ” A great business moto from You’ve Got Mail courtesy of The Godfather. One of the all-time classic romantic comedies, but with just enough business wisdom to make this list. It follows the story of boutique bookseller Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and corporate bookstore chain owner Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), who anonymously meet online while simultaneously entering into a business battle. Although Kathleen is ultimately forced to close her business, this film shows how business is really personal.
4. The Founder
The founder tells the story of how McDonald’s became the biggest restaurant business in the world. As a franchise business ourselves, McDonald’s is the pinnacle of the franchise business model success. This film is a lesson in ambition and salesmanship from Ray Croc (Michael Keaton) “Persistence and determination alone are all powerful”. It does, however, make us aware of protecting our brand and makes me feel a bit sorry for the McDonald brothers.
3. The Intern
This is such a sweet film and our founder, Amanda Bourne’s, favourite. It follows the fictional company “About The Fit” and Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), a talented and overworked CEO who is struggling to balance work and family life. In steps 70-year-old Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro), not the obvious choice for the company’s new intern, but he soon proves invaluable to the company and Jules. This film shows the importance of hiring the right person, and not being afraid to take chances whatever stage of life you are in.
2. Air
Air is the biographical retelling of how the highly lucrative partnership between Nike and Micheal Jordan came about. It’s hard to believe but in 1984 Nike were the underdogs in the sports shoe industry, seen as nowhere near as cool as Adidas. Despite this Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) sees the need to secure a partnership with Jordan and throws out all the rules in his pursuit of this deal. Which, by the way, is now worth $4 billion a year to Nike and $400 Million a year to Micheal Jordan. This film is a masterclass in negotiation from both Sonny and Jordan’s mother Deloris (Viola Davis). Plus I love my Air Jordans!
1. Kinky Boots
Kinky Boots follows the journey of Charlie Price, tasked with saving his family’s ailing shoe business and along with it all of his factory workers’ jobs. Enter Lola the flamboyant drag queen cabaret singer.
Now also an amazing musical, it might not seem like an obvious choice but I see this as a film about a family business, pivoting its client base, listening to potential customers and coming together to create a game-changing new product. Soo much good business advice in here and the feel-good factor is off the charts. “You change the world when you change your mind”
Honourable mentions must go to Moneyball and The Pursuit of Happiness, but seeing as I already included them in my
top 5 to watch while working, I thought I would leave them out of this list!
Are these your top 5 business movies, if not what other great films should have made the list?
