Betting on Zero (2016) on Netflix
NR20161h 39mDocumentary
Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager, calls Herbalife a pyramid scheme and bets that the nutrition company's stock will collapse. Its executives call him a market manipulator.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.1/105,901 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bill Ackman wagers a billion dollars that the shares of Herbalife, a global nutrition company, will fall, arguing that its business is a pyramid scheme. Herbalife's executives say the billionaire hedge fund manager is a market manipulator aiming to bankrupt the company and profit from its failure. The film also tracks former Herbalife distributors and the anti-Herbalife activist Julie Contreras, and it recounts Ackman's feuds with the company's chief executive, Michael O. Johnson, and the investor Carl Icahn. Herbalife's leadership and its current distributors would not appear or speak on the record, so the film draws on archival footage for them.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Betting on Zero (2016)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Herbalife's lobbying firm Podesta and Partners bought 173 tickets to an October 2016 Washington, D.C. screening of Betting on Zero to try to keep the theater empty; John Oliver lampooned the attempt on Last Week Tonight.
- Herbalife registered the film's title as the domain bettingonzero.com and bought Google search placement for an ad pitching "Betting on Zero Movie | A Misleading Infomercial," sending searchers to its own rebuttal page.
- Director Ted Braun approached Herbalife CEO Michael Johnson, investor Carl Icahn and current Herbalife distributors to appear, but all declined on film or on record, so he used archival footage of them instead.
