DiCaprio andWarner Bros. acquired the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007, but production was halted due to content restrictions. It was later produced by the independentRed Granite Pictures. The film was shot in New York in late 2012, using mostly 35mm film stock.
The film premiered in New York City on December 17, 2013, and was released in the United States on December 25, byParamount Pictures. It was the first major American film to be released exclusively throughdigital distribution.[4] It was a major commercial success, grossing $407 million worldwide during its theatrical run, becoming Scorsese's highest-grossing film.[5] However, the film initially received considerable controversy for its moral ambiguity and lack of sympathy for victims, as well as its explicit, graphic sexual content, extremeprofanity (with at least 500 uses of the expletive "fuck"), depiction of hard drug use, anduse of animals during production. The film was initially ratedNC-17 by theMotion Picture Association of America, but it was shortly appealed for an R rating after Scorsese made slight changes to the film. It set aGuinness World Record for the most instances of profanity in a film. The film's financing became implicated in the1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal; theU.S. Department of Justice and theMalaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigated Red Granite Pictures, and producerRiza Aziz was arrested in 2019. He was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000Malaysian ringgit (US$240,000) bail.[6]
Jordan befriends his neighborDonnie Azoff, and the two start their own boiler room-styled brokerage company. They recruit Jordan's childhood friends Robbie Feinberg, Alden Kupferburg, Nicky Koskoff, Chester Ming, and Toby Welch, as well as local drug pusher Brad Bonick, all of whom Jordan trains in the art of the "hard sell," and set up the company in an abandoned auto repair shop. Jordan's tactics and salesmanship largely contribute to the success of hispump and dump scheme, in which misleading, positive statements inflate a stock's price so it can be sold at an artificially high price. When the scheme's perpetrators sell their overvalued securities, the price plummets, and those who were conned into buying at the inflated price are left with stock that is suddenly worth much less than they paid for it. To cloak this, Jordan gives the firm the respectable-sounding name ofStratton Oakmont in 1989.
Soon after, the company becomes immensely successful, moving out of the auto repair shop into a bigger office. An exposé inForbes which dubs Jordan "The Wolf of Wall Street" – "a sort of twistedRobin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers"— initially enrages Belfort until it causes hundreds of ambitious young financiers to flock to the company, thus causing them to move into even bigger offices.
As all this is happening, Jordan becomes immensely successful, and slides into a decadent lifestyle of prostitutes and drugs. He has an affair with lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia; when his wife Teresa finds out about this, Jordan divorces her and marries Naomi in 1991. Meanwhile, theSEC and theFBI begin investigating Stratton Oakmont.
In 1993, Jordan illegally makes $22 million in three hours after securing theIPO ofSteve Madden, Ltd., founded by Donnie's childhood friend and women's shoes designerSteve Madden, bringing him and his firm further FBI attention. Jordan tries to bribe agent Denham but fails, prompting him to seek a safe place for the money. He opens aSwiss bank account with corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma, a British citizen who is outside the immediate reach of American authorities. He uses Brad's Swiss-Slovenian wife Chantalle and her family, who have European passports, to smuggle the cash intoSwitzerland.
Donnie and Brad get into a heated argument in public during a money exchange, resulting in Brad's arrest as Donnie escapes. Donnie informs Jordan that he has come upon some lemmon 714quaaludes, which the latter refers to as "the holy grail" of drugs. The two take the pills at Belfort's home, but they have no effect. They assume that they have expired, and wind up taking the rest of their supply.
Jordan's private investigatorBo Dietl calls him and tells him he needs to talk to him on a payphone. Jordan drives to a local country club and calls Bo, who informs him that the FBI is wiretapping his phones. While talking with Bo, the quaaludes kick in, and Jordan becomes extremely inebriated, struggling to get home in hisLamborghini Countach. When he gets home, he finds Donnie talking on the phone, and nearly strangles him with the phone cord. Donnie chokes on some meat; Jordan ingests a large amount ofcocaine and gives him theHeimlich maneuver. The next day, the police arrive and inform Jordan that his car has been trashed.
Fearing for his son, Jordan's father Max advises him to leave Stratton Oakmont and lie low while Jordan's lawyer negotiates a deal to keep him out of prison. In the midst of his farewell speech, Jordan cannot bear to quit and talks himself into staying, to the immense support of his friends and employees, but to the anger of his father.
In 1996, Jordan, Donnie, and their wives are on a yacht trip toItaly, when they learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Fearing for the money he left under her name in his Swiss account, Jordan announces that they will chart a course to Switzerland toforge her name on a document and save the account before going to London for the funeral. To bypass the border patrols, he orders his yacht captain Ted to sail toMonaco, but their ship capsizes in a storm. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them toGeneva is destroyed when a seagull flies into the engine; Jordan takes this as a sign from God to address his worsening drug addiction and attempts to sober up.
In 1998, Saurel and Koskoff are arrested for an unrelated crime, the former informing the FBI about Jordan as part of a plea bargain. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence from the rest of his colleagues in exchange for leniency. After having sex for the last time, Naomi tells Jordan that she is divorcing him, and wants full custody of their daughter and infant son. In a cocaine-fueled rage, Jordan punches Naomi and tries to drive away with their daughter, but crashes his car in the driveway.
Later, Jordanwears a wire to work and slips a note to Donnie, warning his partner. However, the note is shortly found by the FBI, who arrest Jordan, before they raid and shut down Stratton Oakmont. Despite breaching his deal, Jordan receives a reduced sentence of 36 months in aminimum security prison for his testimony, and is released in 2000 after serving 22 months. After his release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales techniques, using the same test he used with his founding partners at his firm.
In addition, cameos and smaller roles includeBo Dietl as himself, the realJordan Belfort as theAuckland Straight Line host at the end of the film,Stephanie Kurtzuba as Kimmie Belzer,Thomas Middleditch as a Stratton broker whose goldfish is eaten by Donnie for slacking off,Jake Hoffman asSteve Madden,Fran Lebowitz as The Honorary [sic] Samantha Stogel,Edward Herrmann as the voiceover in the Stratton Oakmont commercial at the beginning of the film, and an uncreditedSpike Jonze as Dwayne, the head of the Long Island brokerage firm who introduces Belfort to the world of penny stocks.[7]
Martin Scorsese, the director of the film, in 2010
In 2007, DiCaprio andWarner Bros. won a bidding war for the rights to Belfort's memoirThe Wolf of Wall Street, with Belfort making $1 million off the deal.[8][9] Having worked on the film's script, Scorsese was considered to direct the film but abandoned the project to work onShutter Island (2010).[10] In 2010, Warner Bros. offered the directorial role toRidley Scott, withBrad Pitt playing Belfort,[11] but the studio eventually abandoned the project.[12]
In 2012, theindependent companyRed Granite Pictures greenlit the project without content restrictions. Soon after, Scorsese came back on board.[13] Red Granite Pictures also askedParamount Pictures to distribute the film;[14] Paramount agreed to do so in the United States, Canada and Japan, with Red Granite Pictures holding international rights through various independent distributors,Universal Pictures distributed the film in some countries in Europe andRoadshow Films distributed the film in Australia and New Zealand.[15][16]
According to Belfort,[17]Random House asked him to tone down or excise the depictions of debauchery in his memoir before publication, especially those relating to his bachelor party, which featuredzoophilia, and rampant use of drugs likenitrous oxide; neither the published memoir nor the film contains references to this.[18][failed verification]
In the film, most real-life characters' names have been changed from Belfort's original memoir. Donnie Azoff is based onDanny Porush. The name was changed after Porush threatened to sue the filmmakers and Paramount. Porush maintains that much of the film is fictional and that Azoff is not an accurate depiction of him.[19][20] FormerDonna Karan Jeanswear CEO Elliot Lavigne does not appear in the film, but an incident recounted in the book, in which Belfort gives Lavignemouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save him fromchoking to death, is similar to a scene in the film involving Donnie. The FBI agent Patrick Denham is the stand-in for real-life Gregory Coleman,[21] and lawyer Manny Riskin is based onIra Sorkin.[22] Belfort's first wife, Denise Lombardo, is renamed Teresa Petrillo, and his second wife,Nadine Caridi, is Naomi Lapaglia on-screen. In contrast, Mark Hanna's name remains the same as the LF Rothschild stockbroker who, like Belfort, was convicted of fraud and served time in prison.[23][24] Belfort's parents Max and Leah Belfort's names remained the same for the film.[25] The role of Aunt Emma was initially offered toJulie Andrews, who declined as she was recovering from an ankle injury, and was replaced byJoanna Lumley.[26]Olivia Wilde auditioned for the role of Naomi, but she was rejected as she was deemed "too old" for the role despite DiCaprio being a decade older than her; the role eventually went to Margot Robbie.[27] In January 2014, Jonah Hill revealed in an interview withHoward Stern that he had made only $60,000 on the film (the lowest possibleSAG-AFTRA rate for his amount of work), while DiCaprio (who also produced) received $10 million.[28][29][30]
Scorsese's longtime editorThelma Schoonmaker, who has received sevenAcademy Award nominations (as well as one win) forBest Film Editing, said the film would be shotdigitally instead of on film.[36] Scorsese had been a proponent of shooting onfilm, but decided to shootHugo digitally because it was being photographed in3D. Despite being filmed in 2D,The Wolf of Wall Street was originally planned to be shot digitally.[37] Schoonmaker expressed her disappointment with the decision: "It would appear that we've lost the battle. I think Marty just feels it's unfortunately over, and there's been no bigger champion of film than him."[36] After extensive comparison tests during pre-production, eventually the majority of the film was shot on film stock, while scenes that usedgreen screen effects or low light (mainly the nighttime scenes) were shot with the digitalArri Alexa camera system.[37] The film contains 400 to 450VFX shots.[38]
The film set aGuinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a motion picture.[39] It uses the word "fuck" 569 times,[e] "cunt" three times, "twat" twice, "fuckface" once, and "prick" four times, averaging 2.81 profanities per minute.[40][42][43] The previous record holders were Scorsese's gangster filmsGoodfellas (1990) andCasino (1995), which had respectively 300 and 422 uses of the word; the 1993 filmMenace II Society, which had 305 uses; the 1997 British filmNil by Mouth, which had 428; and the 1999 filmSummer of Sam at 435.[39] The record has since been broken bySwearnet: The Movie, which uses the word 935 times, but it still holds the record for a major theatrical release.[44]
The film's distributor in theUnited Arab Emirates cut 45 minutes of scenes of swearing, religious profanity, drug use, sex, and nudity, and "muted" dialogue containing expletives.The National reported that filmgoers in the UAE believed the film should not have been shown rather than being edited so heavily.[45]
The Wolf of Wall Street premiered at theZiegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 17, 2013,[46] followed by a wide release on December 25. Its original release date of November 15 was pushed back after cuts were made to reduce the runtime.[47] On October 22, it was reported that the film was set for release that Christmas.[48] On October 29, Paramount officially confirmed that the film would release on Christmas Day, with a runtime of 165 minutes.[49][50] This was changed to 180 minutes on November 25.[51] It was officially rated R by theMotion Picture Association (MPA) for "sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence".[52] In the United Kingdom, the film received an18 certificate from theBritish Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for "very strong language, strong sex [and] hard drug use".[1]
The film is banned inKenya,Malaysia,Nepal, andZimbabwe because of its scenes depicting sex and drugs and excessive profanity, and additional scenes have been cut in the versions playing in India. In Singapore, after cuts were made to a gay orgy scene as well as some religiously profane or denigrating language, the film was passed R21.[53][54]
The release ofThe Wolf of Wall Street marked a shift in cinema history when Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters exclusively in a digital format, eliminating35mm film entirely.Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last Paramount production to include a 35mm film version to be shown in theaters.[55][56]
The Wolf of Wall Street was released on DVD andBlu-ray on March 25, 2014.[57] On January 27, 2014, it was announced that a four-hourdirector's cut would be attached to the home release.[58] Paramount later announced that the home release would feature only the original theatrical version.[59] A4KUltra HD Blu-ray was released on December 14, 2021.[60]
The Wolf of Wall Street grossed $116.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $289 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $406.9 million;[2] it is Scorsese's highest-grossing film.[61]
In the United States, the film finished in fifth place in its first weekend with $19.4 million from 3,387 theaters, for a five-day total of $34.2 million.[62] The film made $13.2 million (a drop of 27.9%) and $8.8 million (33%) in its second and third weekends, finishing in fourth place both times.[63][64]
In Australia, it was the highest grossing R-rated film, earning $12.96 million.[65]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 79% of 284 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Funny, self-referential, and irreverent to a fault,The Wolf of Wall Street finds Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic."[66]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[67]
Dana Stevens ofSlate was more critical, calling the film "epic in size, claustrophobically narrow in scope."[72] Marshall Fine ofThe Huffington Post argued that the story "wants us to be interested in characters who are dull people to start with, made duller by their delusions of being interesting because they are high".[73] Some critics viewed the film as an irresponsible glorification of Belfort and his associates rather than a satirical takedown. DiCaprio defended the film, arguing that it does not glorify the excessive lifestyle it depicts.[74][75]
In 2016, the film was ranked No. 78 on theBBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list.[76] In 2017, Richard Brody namedThe Wolf of Wall Street the second-best film of the 21st century so far, behindJean-Luc Godard'sIn Praise of Love.[77] In 2019, Brody namedThe Wolf of Wall Street the best film of the 2010s.[78] In 2025, the film ranked number 20 onThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 54 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.[79][80]
The film received an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale from audiences surveyed byCinemaScore,[81] the lowest rating of any film opening that week.[82] TheLos Angeles Times suggested that the film's marketing may have attracted conservative viewers who expected a more moralistic tone than the film presents.[83]
Christina McDowell, daughter of Tom Prousalis, who worked closely with Belfort at Stratton Oakmont, wrote an open letter to Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Belfort, criticizing the film for insufficiently portraying the victims of Stratton Oakmont's financial crimes, disregarding the damage done to her family as a result, and giving celebrity status to people (Belfort and his partners, including her father) who do not deserve it.[84]
Steven Perlberg ofBusiness Insider saw anadvance screening of the film at aRegal Cinemas near theGoldman Sachs building with an audience of finance workers. Perlberg reported cheers from the audience at what he considered all the wrong moments, writing, "When Belfort—a drug addict attempting to remain sober—rips up a couch cushion to get to his secretcoke stash, there were cheers."[85]
FormerAssistant United States Attorney Joel M. Cohen, who prosecuted Belfort, criticized both the film and the book on which it is based. He said that he believes some of Belfort's claims were "invented": for instance, Belfort "aggrandized his importance and reverence for him by others at his firm." He strongly criticized the film for not depicting the "thousands of victims who lost hundreds of millions of dollars", not accepting the filmmakers' argument that it would have diverted attention from the wrongdoers. He deplored the ending—"beyond an insult" to Belfort's victims—in which the real Belfort appears, while showing "a large sign advertising the name of Mr. Belfort's real motivational speaking company", and a positive depiction of Belfort uttering "variants of the same falsehoods he trained others to use against his victims".[86]
The Wolf of Wall Street was listed on many critics' top ten lists for films released in 2013,[87] and was chosen as one of the top ten films of the year by theAmerican Film Institute.[88] Metacritic analysis found the film was the ninth-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings[89] and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings.[90]
The Wolf of Wall Street uses animals, including achimpanzee, a lion, a snake, a fish, and dogs.[93] The chimpanzee and the lion were provided by the Big Cat Habitat wildlife sanctuary inSarasota County, Florida. The four-year-old chimpanzee Chance spent time with DiCaprio and learned to roller skate in three weeks. The sanctuary also provided a lion named Handsome because the trading company depicted in the film used a lion as its symbol.[94] Danny Porush denied that there were any animals in the office, although he admitted to eating an employee's goldfish.[95]
In December 2013, before the film premiered, the organizationFriends of Animals criticized the use of the chimpanzee and organized a boycott of the film.Variety reported, "Friends of Animals thinks the chimp... suffered irreversible psychological damage after being forced to act."[96]The Guardian commented on the increasing criticism of Hollywood's use of animals, writing, "The Wolf of Wall Street's use of a chimpanzee arrives as Hollywood comes under ever-increasing scrutiny for its employment of animals on screen".PETA also launched a campaign to highlight mistreatment of ape "actors" and to petition for DiCaprio not to work with great apes.[95]
ProducerRiza Aziz was arrested in 2019 and faces trial over allegations thatWolf of Wall Street's financing is connected to the1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. The scandal also implicated his stepfatherNajib Razak, former Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The film is part of a broader investigation into these illicit monetary movements, and in 2016 was named in a series of civil complaints theUnited States Department of Justice filed "for having provided a trust account through which hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the 1MDB fund were illicitly siphoned".[100][101][102] To settle the civil lawsuit, Red Granite Pictures agreed to pay the U.S. government $60 million with no "admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of Red Granite".[103] This settlement was part of a more expansive U.S. effort to seize approximately $1.7 billion in assets allegedly purchased with funds embezzled from 1MDB.[103] In January 2020, Belfort sued Red Granite for $300 million, also wishing to void his rights deal; he said that he would never have sold the rights to Red Granite if he had known how the film was being financed.[104][105]Aziz was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000Malaysian ringgit (US$240,000) bail.[6]
Various people have criticized the film as materialistic, encouraging greedy behavior,extreme wealth, and advocating for the infamous individuals portrayed in the film. Christina McDowell, whose father, Tom Prousalis, worked in association with Belfort, accused the filmmakers of "exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifyinggreed andpsychopathic behavior". She emphasized the gravity and significance of Belfort's crimes, saying thatWolf of Wall Street is a "reckless attempt at continuing to pretend that these sorts of schemes are entertaining, even as the country is reeling from yet another round of Wall Street scandals".[106]
After DiCaprio defended himself from criticism,Variety journalist Whitney Friedlander called the film "three hours of cash, drugs, hookers, repeat" and argued that the film is a "celebration of this lifestyle" and implies that short-lived extreme wealth and extraordinary experiences are superior to normal behavior.[107]
Nikole TenBrink, vice president of marketing and membership atRisk and Insurance Management Society, has said the film is a "cautionary tale of what can happen when fraud is left unchecked". She describes Belfort's business acumen, his talent in communicating and selling his ideas, and his ability to motivate others as offering "valuable lessons for risk professionals as they seek to avoid similar pitfalls".[108]
Belfort said of the film's depiction of himself and Stratton Oakmont that it did an excellent job at describing the "overall feeling" of those years, adding, "the camaraderie, the insanity, that was accurate". Of his drug use, Belfort said that his actual habits were "much worse" than is depicted in the film and that he was "on 22 different drugs at the end".[109]
Belfort also analyzed the inaccuracies in the film's oversimplification of Stratton Oakmont's gradual transition from advocating for "speculative stocks" to "help build America" to committing crimes. He said he "didn't like hearing" overly simplified and blunt depictions of his crimes because "it made me look like I was just trying to rip people off". However, Belfort did acknowledge the cinematic benefits of these oversimplifications as "a very easy way in three hours" to "move the audience emotionally".[109]
On September 28, 2022,Nadine Macaluso, Belfort's ex-wife on whom the character Naomi was based, said that the depiction of Belfort and their relationship was accurate and that she hopes to educate people on signs of domestic abuse and toxic relationships.[110]
The film's soundtrack features both original and preexisting music tracks. It was released on December 17, 2013, for digital download.[114][115] More than 60 songs are used in the film, but only 16 are on the official soundtrack. Among the notable exceptions are original compositions byTheodore Shapiro.[116]
^Dungan, Isabelle (December 20, 2013)."The Real Wolf of Wall Street".Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. RetrievedDecember 21, 2013 – via YouTube.
^Zagano, Phyllis (January 1, 2014)."The 'culture of prosperity'".National Catholic Reporter.Archived from the original on January 12, 2014. RetrievedJanuary 16, 2014.
.png)
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
