''The Big Short'' is a 2015 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film, directed by

Adam McKay Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. McKay began his career as a head writer for the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') from 1995 to 2001. After leaving ''SNL'', McKay co-w ...

, and co-written by McKay and Charles Randolph. Based on the 2010 book of the same name by

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. ...

, it shows how the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

was triggered by the

United States housing bubble The 2000s United States housing bubble or house price boom or 2000s housing cycle was a sharp run up and subsequent collapse of house asset prices affecting over half of the U.S. states. In many regions a Real-estate bubble, real estate bubb ...

. The film stars

Christian Bale Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. List of awards and nominations received by C ...

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, a ...

Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling ( ; born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. His work includes both independent films and major studio features, and his accolades include a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, a ...

, and

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...

, with

John Magaro John Robert Magaro (born February 16, 1983) is an American actor. He has acted in the films '' Not Fade Away'' (2012), '' The Big Short'' (2015), '' Carol'' (2015), ''Overlord'' (2018), '' First Cow'' (2019), '' Showing Up'' (2022), ''The Mistre ...

Finn Wittrock Peter L. Wittrock Jr. (born October 28, 1984), known professionally as Finn Wittrock, is an American actor who began his career in guest roles on several television shows. He made his film debut in 2004, in '' Halloweentown High'' before returning ...

, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, and

Marisa Tomei Marisa Tomei ( , ; born December 4, 1964) is an American actress. She gained prominence for her comedic performance in '' My Cousin Vinny'' (1992), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received further nominations ...

in supporting roles. To explain

financial instrument Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership, interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form ...

s, the film features

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s by actress Margot Robbie, chef

Anthony Bourdain Anthony Michael Bourdain ( ; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author and Travel documentary, travel documentarian. He starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the huma ...

, singer-songwriter

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. Gomez began her career as a child actress, appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), a ...

, economist

Richard Thaler Richard H. Thaler (; born September 12, 1945) is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, Thaler was p ...

, and others who break the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

to explain concepts such as

subprime mortgages In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, subpar, non-prime, and second-chance lending) is the provision of loans to people in the United States who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Historically, subpr ...

and synthetic collateralized debt obligations. Several of the film's characters directly address the audience, most frequently Gosling, who serves as the narrator. ''The Big Short'' began a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on December 11, 2015, followed by a

wide release In the motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in ...

on December 23 by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

. A critical and commercial success, the film grossed $133 million on a $50 million budget and received acclaim for the performances of the cast (particularly those of Bale and Carell), McKay's direction, editing, and the screenplay. The film won the

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, mus ...

in addition to nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Bale), and Best Film Editing.

Synopsis

The film consists of three separate but concurrent stories, loosely connected by their actions in the years leading up to the

Scion Capital

In 2005, eccentric

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

manager

Michael Burry Michael James Burry (; born June 19, 1971) is an American investor and hedge fund manager. He founded the hedge fund Scion Capital which now goes by the name Scion Asset Management. He is best known for being among the first investors to predic ...

discovers that the United States housing market, based on high-risk

subprime loans In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, subpar, non-prime, and second-chance lending) is the provision of loans to people in the United States who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. Historically, subpr ...

, is extremely unstable. Anticipating the market's collapse in the second quarter of 2007, as interest rates would rise from

adjustable-rate mortgage A variable-rate mortgage, adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), or tracker mortgage is a mortgage loan with the interest rate on the note periodically adjusted based on an index which reflects the cost to the lender of borrowing on the credit markets.Wie ...

s, he proposes to create a credit default swap (CDS) market, allowing him to bet against, or short, market-based

mortgage-backed securities A mortgage-backed security (MBS) is a type of asset-backed security (an "Financial instrument, instrument") which is secured by a mortgage loan, mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals ( ...

, for profit. His long-term bet, exceeding $1 billion, is accepted by major

investment Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

and

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

s but requires paying substantial monthly premiums. This sparks his main client, Lawrence Fields, to accuse him of "wasting"

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

while many clients demand that he reverse and sell, but Burry refuses. Under pressure, he eventually restricts withdrawals, angering investors, and Fields sues Burry. Eventually, the

began and his fund's value increases by 489% with an overall profit (even allowing for the massive premiums) of over $2.69 billion, with Fields alone receiving $489 million.

FrontPoint Partners

Jared Vennett (based on Greg Lippmann), the executive in charge of global asset-backed securities trading at

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, is one of the first bankers to understand Burry's analysis, learning from one of the bankers who sold Burry an early CDS. Using his quant to verify that Burry is most likely correct, he decides to enter the market and purchase CDSs himself. However, his large monthly premiums result in him looking to reduce the size of his position by selling CDSs. A misplaced phone call alerts FrontPoint Partners hedge fund manager Mark Baum (based on Steve Eisman), who is motivated to buy swaps from Vennett due to his low regard for banks' ethics and business models. Vennett explains that the packaging of subprime loans into

collateralized debt obligation A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured finance, structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing Mortgage-backed se ...

s (CDOs) rated AAA will guarantee their eventual collapse. Conducting a field investigation in South Florida, the FrontPoint team discovers that

mortgage broker A mortgage broker acts as an intermediary who brokers mortgage loans on behalf of individuals or businesses. Traditionally, banks and other lending institutions have sold their own products. As markets for mortgages have become more competitive, ...

s are profiting by selling their mortgage deals to

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

banks, which pay higher margins for the riskier mortgages, creating the bubble. This knowledge prompts the FrontPoint team to buy CDSs from Vennett. In early 2007, as these loans begin to default, CDO prices somehow rise and ratings agencies refuse to downgrade the bond ratings. Baum discovers

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in whi ...

and dishonesty amongst the credit rating agencies from an acquaintance at

Standard & Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is co ...

. Vennett invites the team to the American Securitization Forum in Las Vegas, where Baum learns from a CDO manager that the market for insuring mortgage bonds, including "

synthetic CDO A synthetic CDO is a variation of a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) that generally uses credit default swaps and other derivatives to obtain its investment goals.Lemke, Lins and Picard, ''Mortgage-Backed Securities'', §5:16 (Thomson West, 2 ...

s" which are bets in favor of the faulty mortgage bonds, is significantly larger than the market for the mortgage loans themselves, leading a horrified Baum to realize the entire world economy is set to collapse. As the subprime bonds continue to fall, Baum learns that

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

, under whose umbrella FrontPoint operates, had also taken short positions against mortgage derivatives. However, in order to offset the risk and the monthly premiums, it had sold short positions in higher-rated mortgage derivatives. Now that these are also collapsing in value, Morgan Stanley is facing severe liquidity problems. Despite pressure from his staff to sell their position before Morgan Stanley collapses, Baum refuses to sell until the economy is on the verge of collapsing, making over $1 billion in their CDSs. Even so, Baum laments that the banks, as well as the government, will not admit what caused the economy to collapse, but will instead blame "immigrants and poor people."

Brownfield Fund

Young investors Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley run a small firm called Brownfield Fund (based on the firm

Cornwall Capital Cornwall Capital is a New York City-based private financial investment corporation. It is best known as one of the few investors to foresee and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007, as described in the book ''The Big Short'' by Michae ...

). They accidentally discover a marketing presentation by Vennett on a coffee table in the lobby of

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

(the characters address the audience stating that in reality they had heard about Vennett's plan through word-of-mouth from friends and publications), convincing them to invest in CDSs, as it fits their strategy of buying cheap insurance with big potential payouts. Below the capital threshold for an

International Swaps and Derivatives Association The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA ) is a trade organization of participants in the market for derivative (finance)#Over-the-counter derivatives, over-the-counter derivatives. It is headquartered in New York City, and has c ...

(ISDA) Master Agreement required to enter into trades like Burry's and Baum's, they enlist the aid of Ben Rickert, Shipley's neighbor and a retired securities trader who was based in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. When the bond values and CDOs rise despite defaults, Geller suspects the banks of committing fraud. The trio also visit the American Securitization Forum, where they learn that the SEC has no regulations to monitor mortgage-backed security activity. They successfully make even more profit than Burry and Baum by shorting the higher-rated AA mortgage securities, as they were considered highly stable and carried a much higher payout ratio. Later, as home mortgage defaults increase, the price of the CDOs (the insurance against) does not rise nor does the price of the underlying mortgage bonds drop, and they realize the banks and the ratings agencies are secretly freezing the price of their CDOs in order to sell and short them before the inevitable crash. Outraged at the bank's cheating, Geller and Shipley try to tip off the press about the upcoming disaster and the rampant fraud, but a writer from ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' declines to report the story in the interest of preserving his relationships with Wall Street investment banks. As the market starts collapsing, Ben, on vacation in England, sells their CDSs. Ultimately, they turn their $30 million investment into $80 million, but their faith in the system is broken when Ben tells them of the severe consequences for the general public.

Epilogue

Jared Vennett receives a bonus of $47 million for profits made on his CDSs. Mark Baum becomes more gracious from the financial fallout, and his staff continue to operate their fund. Charlie Geller and Jamie Shipley go their separate ways after unsuccessfully trying to sue the ratings agencies, with Jamie still running the fund and Charlie moving to Charlotte to start a family. Ben Rickert returns to his peaceful retirement. Michael Burry closes his fund after public backlash and multiple IRS

audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...

s, now investing only in water securities. The personnel of the banks responsible for the crisis escape any consequences for their actions, with the single exception of one trader, Kareem Serageldin. It is noted that as of 2015, banks are selling CDOs again under a new label: " Bespoke Tranche Opportunity".

Cast

The film follows three groups of characters tied to their respective short trades. While they are sometimes seen on screen together, the firms don't interact with each other directly. Scion Capital and Associates *

, one of the first people to discover the American housing market bubble. Burry operates his own hedge fund,

Scion Capital Scion Asset Management, LLC (Scion) is an American hedge fund headquartered based in California that is founded by Michael Burry. It is best known for profiting from the subprime mortgage crisis as well as paving the way for the GameStop short ...

, and uses his liquidity to short the housing market. *

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received t ...

as Lawrence Fields, an investor in Burry's hedge fund, a fictional composite of

Joel Greenblatt Joel Greenblatt (born December 13, 1957) is an American academic, hedge fund manager, investor, and writer. He is a value investor, alumnus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and adjunct professor at the Columbia University ...

and others who had invested with Burry but came to disagree with his strategy. * Jae Suh Park as Burry's wife. The real Michael Burry made a cameo in the film as a Scion employee. At the beginning of the scene in which the fictional Burry's investors confront him at his office, he is briefly shown standing near the front door, talking on the phone. FrontPoint Partners and Associates *

as Mark Baum, the leader of FrontPoint Partners, a small independent trading firm. Baum is in a state of constant disgust with the American banks. The character is based on Steve Eisman. *

as Jared Vennett, a salesman from

who decides to sell Burry's credit default swaps for his own profit. The character of Vennett is based on Greg Lippmann. * Hamish Linklater as Porter Collins * Rafe Spall as Danny Moses * Jeremy Strong as Vinny Daniel *

as Cynthia Baum, Mark Baum's wife. * Adepero Oduye as Kathy Tao, an employee of

, who oversees Baum's fund. * Byron Mann as Wing Chau, a CDO manager whom Baum interviews in Las Vegas. *

Melissa Leo Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Critics' Choice A ...

as Georgia Hale, an employee of

Standard and Poor's S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is cons ...

based on Ernestine Warner, who admits to giving inaccurate ratings for bonds. * Max Greenfield and

Billy Magnussen William Gregory Magnussen (born April 20, 1985) is an American actor. He has been featured in the films '' Into the Woods'' (2014), '' Bridge of Spies'' (2015), '' Birth of the Dragon'' (2016), '' Game Night'' (2018), and '' Aladdin'' (2019), and ...

as mortgage brokers taking advantage of people looking for homes. *Stanley Wong as Ted Jiang, a

quantitative analyst Quantitative analysis is the use of mathematical and statistical methods in finance and investment management. Those working in the field are quantitative analysts (quants). Quants tend to specialize in specific areas which may include derivative ...

working for Jared Vennett. The character is based on real 'quant' Eugene Xu. Brownfield Fund *

as Charlie Geller, one half of Brownfield Fund (based on

), who discover Vennett's prospectus and also decide to short the housing market. The character is based on Charlie Ledley. *

as Jamie Shipley, Charlie's partner in Brownfield Fund. The character is based on James Mai. *

as Ben Rickert, a retired former trader who helps Jamie and Charlie with their trades. The character is based on Ben Hockett. * Karen Gillan appears as Evie, an employee of the SEC and Jamie's brother's ex-girlfriend, whom he meets with in Las Vegas. Interstitials These celebrities appear as themselves in several interstitials to explain different financial aspects of the film. * Margot Robbie as herself, explains Mortgage Backed Security. *

as himself (

Collateralized Debt Obligation A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a type of structured finance, structured asset-backed security (ABS). Originally developed as instruments for the corporate debt markets, after 2002 CDOs became vehicles for refinancing Mortgage-backed se ...

). *

as himself ( Credit Default Swap /

Synthetic CDO A synthetic CDO is a variation of a CDO (collateralized debt obligation) that generally uses credit default swaps and other derivatives to obtain its investment goals.Lemke, Lins and Picard, ''Mortgage-Backed Securities'', §5:16 (Thomson West, 2 ...

). *

as herself.

Production

Development

In 2013,

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

acquired the rights to the 2010 non-fiction book '' The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine'' by

, to develop it into a film, which

Plan B Entertainment Plan B Entertainment, Inc., more commonly known as Plan B, is an American production company founded in November 2001 by Brad Pitt, Brad Grey, Kristin Hahn and Jennifer Aniston. The company first signed with Warner Bros. as a replacement for ...

would produce. On March 24, 2014,

was hired to write and direct a film about the housing and

economic bubble An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

. Screenwriter Charles Randolph, who co-wrote the film with McKay, said one of the first challenges was finding the right tone for the film. He told ''Creative Screenwriting'', "In general it was trying to find the right tone that was slightly funnier than your average

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

comedy, which is all grounded character-based but not so satirical where you got ''

Wag the Dog ''Wag the Dog'' is a 1997 American black comedy political satire film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. Produced and directed by Barry Levinson, the film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Al ...

.'' Somewhere between there was what I was shooting for. Once I got the tone down, then I went through the plot. The market's movements provided you with an underlying plot. You make your short deal, then the bank is trying to squeeze you out, and then it all breaks loose. So that was pretty easy, and it provided character arcs against that." Two years after Randolph wrote his draft, McKay, as director, rewrote Randolph's screenplay. It was McKay's idea to include the celebrity cameos in the film to explain the financial concepts.

Casting

On January 13, 2015, '' Variety'' reported that

, and

were set to star in the film, with Pitt producing the film along with

Dede Gardner Dorcas Wright "Dede" Gardner (born October 16, 1967) is an American film producer. She was president since the founding of Plan B Entertainment and currently serving as Co-President with Jeremy Kleiner since 2013. She has won Oscars for produci ...

and Jeremy Kleiner.

would produce, with Paramount handling the distribution rights. Before this, Pitt had already starred in the adaptation of the author's ''

Moneyball Moneyball or money ball may refer to: * '' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'', 2003 book by Michael Lewis ** ''Moneyball'' (film), 2011 film adaptation of the book * ''Moneyball'' (album), 2025 album by Dutch Interior * Sabermetrics ...

'', for which he was nominated for an Oscar. On January 14, it was announced that

would also star. On April 21, 2015, more cast was revealed by ''Deadline'', including

, Hamish Linklater,

, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, and

. Charles Randolph wrote the initial draft. Max Greenfield joined the ensemble cast of the film on April 23, 2015. Karen Gillan tweeted about her involvement in the film on May 8, 2015. Jeffry Griffin, who plays Vennett's assistant Chris, was originally only planned to appear as an

extra Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...

, and was cast to a speaking role after a production assistant picked him out of a crowd.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

on the film began on March 18, 2015, in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. On March 25, filming was taking place on General de Gaulle Boulevard in the

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

section of New Orleans. On May 8, Gillan confirmed she was shooting her scenes. On May 20, 2015, filming took place on a short stretch of Mercer Street, between Prince Street and Spring Street, in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. On May 22, the production crew recreated the offices of failed investment firm

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1850. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merril ...

in the lobby of the

New York State Department of Financial Services The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS or NYSDFS) is the department of the New York state government responsible for regulating financial services and products, including those subject to the New York insurance, banking and fin ...

in Manhattan. An assistant counsel for the Department of Financial Services played one of the extras in the scene.

Release

On September 22, 2015, Paramount set the film for a

on December 11, 2015, and a

on December 23, 2015. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on March 15, 2016.

Box office

''The Big Short'' grossed $70.3 million in the United States and Canada and $63.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $133.4 million, against a production budget of $50 million. The film was released in eight theaters in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on December 11, 2015, and earned $705,527 (an average of $88,191 per theater). It set the record for the best ever per-screen gross for a film opening in eight locations, breaking the previous record held by '' Memoirs of a Geisha'' ($85,313 per theater), and was the third biggest theater average of 2015 behind the four screen debuts of ''

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

'' ($130,000) and '' The Revenant'' ($118,640). The film had its wide release on December 23, 2015 and grossed $2.3 million on its first day. In its opening weekend it grossed $10.5 million, finishing 6th at the box office.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''The Big Short'' has an approval rating of 89% based on 331 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Big Short'' approaches a serious, complicated subject with an impressive attention to detail – and manages to deliver a well-acted, scathingly funny indictment of its real-life villains in the bargain." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 45 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

gave the film a score of 8.6/10, praising its "energetic direction" and making "a complicated tale palpable for the layperson even as it triggers outrage at the fatcats who helped cause it". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' "UpShot" series stated ''The Big Short'' offered the "strongest film explanation of the global financial crisis". The series also stated that it "wouldn't necessarily have been able to cash in as successfully as the characters in ''The Big Short''. The success of this film is due to the work of the actors who played the characters.”

Historical accuracy

David McCandless's visual blog ''Information is Beautiful'' deduced that, while taking creative licence into account, the film was 91.4% accurate when compared to real-life events, calling it a "shockingly truthful film" with "very little dramatization or fakery." Movie critics with backgrounds in finance also commented on the film. Many agreed with the public that ''The Big Short'' was entertaining and engaging, but also terrifying. Glenn Kenny reported that the film accurately got the message across that even though the lives of the characters were not interconnected, their stories were. While the general plot of the film is the same as the book, many of the character names have been changed. For example, Steve Eisman has become "Mark Baum" and Greg Lippmann has become "Jared Vennett". Some biographical information has also been slightly modified. Eisman has said that he respects Carell's portrayal but that it was not 100 percent true to his real character. Speaking to ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', Eisman said, "Eliminate my sense of humor and make me angry all the time, and that's arell'sportrayal. It's accurate enough, but it's not really me." The film, along with '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', had a brief resurgence in the wake of the January 2021

GameStop short squeeze In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop and other Security (finance), securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for Short (finance), ...

as the events shown in the films provided reference points for what was happening with the GameStop and related stocks.

Accolades

and Charles Randolph won the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, and WGA for Best Adapted Screenplay. They also won an

Empire Award The Empire Awards was an annual British awards ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the local and global film industry. Winners were awarded the Empire Award statuette. The awards, first presented in 1996, were presented by the British ...

for Best Screenplay.

won the

Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor in a Comedy The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor in a Comedy was one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) at their annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards The Critics' ...

and the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture.

Hank Corwin Hank Corwin is an American film editor. He has been nominated for three Oscars for editing the films '' The Big Short'' (2015), '' Vice'' (2018), and '' Don't Look Up'' (2021). In addition, he has been nominated for two BAFTA Awards for Best Ed ...

won the American Cinema Editors Award for Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical) and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing. The film won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Comedy and was named one of the Top 10 Films of the Year at the American Film Institute Awards 2015.

, Jeremy Kleiner, and