• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 5, 2021

Did you miss out on the real-life stock market activity giving average investors the chance to reap big financial gains -- while big high-powered financial hedge funds suffered? You missed some big drama.

No problem. Count on the entertainment industry with famous Wall Street-focused movies and TV shows to get you up to speed on your next big money-making moves.

All this started recently when a group of average/retail investors banded together, via a Reddit sub-forum, and bought up somewhat depressed businesses -- going against the grain of sinking stock-market prices of companies.

They included: physical store video-game retailer GameStop; theater chain AMC Entertainment and other companies with weak financials.

Some of these stocks soared 2,000% over a recent period -- and then fell back some. Robinhood, the average person-focused, stock-market broker, was key in this move.

For those that missed the boast, the entertainment industry continues to offer a partial education — complete with drama.

Since January 26, Reegood, a discovery site for streaming content, said a number of popular Wall Street-focused movies have seen spikes in viewing in recent days. This list includes “Wall Street,” “Trading Places,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Big Short,” “Margin Call” and “Inside Job.”

The largest activity was with “The Big Short,” which relates, in part, to the GameStop situation. Average investors bought up stock to combat hedge-fund short sellers. Shorting stocks means traders bet a company’s stock price will drop.

Reelgood says on January 29 and 30, "The Big Short," starring Christian Bale and Steve Carell, witnessed a tenfold rise in typical daily streams -- just around the time GameStop was soaring to eye-popping heights.

And, of course, the entertainment industry is leaving nothing to chance about future high-profile interest in the subject.

Just days after the GameStop/Robinhood activity, a number of major movie studio companies were rumored to be interested in the story. This includes MGM, which bought the film rights to a forthcoming book, "The Antisocial Network," from best-selling author Ben Mezrich. The kicker: The book hasn’t been written yet.

In short, legacy film makers want to make some quick movie money about a real-life situation about making quick money.