At Foster Moore, we love a good movie almost as much as we love a well-structured registry. So when our movie-inspired sticker sets premiered at the CRF 2025 in Tunisia, we were thrilled by the positive response. From The Empire Files Back to The Lord of the Registries, our cinematic stickers were a hit with delegates from around the world, proof that the registry community has a sense of humor and a shared love for great storytelling.
That got us thinking… corporate registration and company filings might not seem like natural blockbuster material, but look closer and you will find them quietly shaping some of Hollywood’s biggest stories. From The Godfather to The Shawshank Redemption, from "startups" to scandals, the humble act of registering a company has been behind empires, crimes, and comebacks.
Here’s a look at famous movies and TV shows where the corporate register makes a cameo, reminding us that transparency, ownership, and governance can be just as gripping as any plot twist.
Michael Corleone’s move into legitimate business involves buying and registering companies to launder his family’s money. It is subtle but powerful, as incorporation becomes a symbol of power, but also redemption, respectability, and control; proof that legitimacy can start with a filing.
Before digital finance, there was Gordon Gekko’s briefcase. Insider trading, mergers, takeovers, and corporate reports drive the tension as financial greed meets governance. It is the movie that taught a generation that compliance paperwork can be as dramatic as a courtroom confession.
Eliot Ness and his team cannot bring down Al Capone for violence, so they follow the paper trail. Financial records, front companies, and hidden ownership prove to be Capone’s undoing, showing that sometimes the ledger really is mightier than the gun.
When a young lawyer joins a prestigious Memphis firm, he discovers its perfect corporate filings hide organized crime. The firm’s tidy records and offshore structures mask illegal activity, revealing that even the cleanest registry entries can conceal corruption.
Andy Dufresne launders money for the prison warden through fake corporations, all legally registered. When he escapes, he uses those same filings to claim the funds and disappear. It is one of cinema’s best examples of how knowing the system can set you free.
View The Shawshank Redemption on IMDb
A shady brokerage firm creates fake companies to appear legitimate, luring investors into a web of deceit. When regulators investigate, the fraud unravels through the very filings that made the company seem real, proving that every scam leaves a paper trail.
Jordan Belfort’s Stratton Oakmont begins as a legitimate brokerage before turning into a monument to greed. Using offshore companies and falsified filings, Belfort hides illicit profits, proving that the power of paperwork can go both ways.
View The Wolf of Wall Street on IMDb
This dark film breaks down the 2008 financial crisis and the layers of corporate complexity behind it. Mortgage-backed securities, opaque filings, and deregulation reveal how a lack of transparency can bring global systems crashing down.
Ray Kroc’s transformational move is registering a separate real-estate company to control McDonald’s franchise land using morally dubious corporate architecture. That one strategic incorporation shifts power from franchisees to Kroc and transforms the burger chain into a global powerhouse.
Undercover agents expose Pablo Escobar’s money-laundering empire by tracing fake corporate registrations and offshore accounts. The story shows how criminals hide behind legal paperwork, and how investigators can bring them down by following the filings.
Bernie Madoff’s financial empire looked flawless thanks to impeccable filings and an air of legitimacy. When the truth emerges, the same records that built trust also chronicle his downfall, showing how governance can be both guardian and judge.
View The Wizard of Lies on IMDb
Steven Soderbergh’s sharp satire on the Panama Papers exposes how thousands of shell companies exist only on paper. Meryl Streep’s character unravels a web of offshore registrations, reminding viewers why open, transparent registries matter more than ever.
In 1960s America, two Black entrepreneurs use a white proxy to register their real-estate company because of segregation laws. It is an inspiring true story about how access to registration and ownership can empower communities and drive equality.
The story of WeWork’s meteoric rise and fall turns incorporation papers and valuation statements into drama. Behind every pitch and headline lies a web of filings that built, and then broke, one of the world’s most famous startups.
Every great movie tells a story, and so does every incorporation, filing, and record in a corporate register. Behind every entry is ambition, conflict, redemption, or innovation waiting to be discovered. It is time registries got their moment in the spotlight.
Stay tuned, soon may even share a list of TV shows that feature registries in the little screen.
Which films did we miss? Tell us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram, your picks might make us write a sequel.