GameStop Stock Situation Prompts The Big Short And Wolf Of Wall Street To Surge On iTunes Charts

The news about GameStop's stock price and the wider discussion around the stock market and marketplace volatility in general has led to a surge in popularity for a pair of money-minded movies.

The latest iTunes charts show that 2015's The Big Short and 2017's The Wolf of Wall Street have jumped up to the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, respectively, on the top popularity charts. The popularity of these films in recent days is no doubt attributable to the stock market situation and how it's making people curious about how it all works and the culture surrounding it.

Adam McKay's The Big Short tells the story of the 2008 financial crisis and how a series of hedge fund bosses took advantage of people for their own gain. The film often breaks the fourth wall and it features disconnected cutaways that explain dense investing topics. In one memorable scene, Margot Robbie explains subprime mortgages while sipping champagne in a bath tub.

The Wolf of Wall Street, meanwhile, is Martin Scorsese's dramatization of banker Jordan Belfort's life and career as a slimy, drug-fueled stockbroker who eventually goes to prison for fraud. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort.

A similar event transpired at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the movie Contagion--a film about a virus that emerges in China and spreads around the world--got a jolt of popularity.

For more on the GameStop stock situation, check out GameSpot's primer that explains everything you need to know about what's happening and why. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently discussed the stock market during a livestream.