Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - Roger Ebert on Money Movies

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert wasn’t just a lifelong fan of movies. He also knew the business well enough to see Blockbuster Video’s demise months before Netflix was even a public company. Moreover, he could recognize a money line of dialogue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Hill. With The Motley Fool Money Extra, I'm Chris Hill. In a few days, they'll start handing out the Academy Awards. So, before Oscar gets his close-up, let's spend a couple of minutes with Roger. The late, great Roger Ebert was the first film critic ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. His column in the Chicago Sun-Times was syndicated to more than 200 newspapers across America, and he published more than 20 books in his career. As much as anyone, he was a lifelong fan and booster of movies and the art of filmmaking. Back in 2002, Motley Fool CEO Tom Gardner talked with Roger Ebert about great business movies and the future of blockbuster video. Now, we play a game each week on the show,

which we call Buy, Sell, or Hold. But before we get to that, I want to just ask you, because we're a business and money show, is there a single movie or one or two movies that stand out in your mind as being extraordinary films about business or money that our listeners well you know i think the funniest line of dialogue uh that david mamet has ever written was about money and it came in his movie of 2001 called heist the heist uh danny devito was trying to convince gene hackman to pull one more job and gene hackman says he doesn't want to do it he rather go sailing and danny devito says you got to do it and hackman says why do i have to do it And DeVito says, for the money.

And Hackman says, I don't like money. And then DeVito comes up with this classic mammoth line, which ought to be the motto of The Motley Fool. Everybody likes money. That's why they call it money. Okay, now let's play buy, sell, or hold. We present you with a person, place, or thing, an event, a theme, an organization. And we ask you, if it were a stock, would you be buying, selling, or holding, and why? Okay. Buy, sell, or hold, given the encroaching technologies, Blockbuster?

I would sell. And why? Because I think that electronic means of transmission are going to eventually replace the trip to the video store. And I think Blockbuster itself is investing in that area. I think there'll be video on demand that will come in by satellite or internet. Roger Ebert was right to sell. In 2010, Blockbuster Video filed for bankruptcy. As for the money quote, he was off by a little bit, but correct in his sentiment.

It's not the official motto for The Motley Fool, but it is definitely how we like to begin Motley Fool Money each week. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.