The Founder

"He took someone else's idea and America ate it up."

2016 1h 55m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 5,563

DramaHistory

Synopsis

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The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.

“He took someone else's idea and America ate it up.”

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Cast

Michael Keaton
Ray Kroc
Nick Offerman
Dick McDonald
John Carroll Lynch
Mac McDonald
Linda Cardellini
Joan Smith
B.J. Novak
Harry J. Sonneborn
Laura Dern
Ethel Kroc
Justin Randell Brooke
Fred Turner
Kate Kneeland
June Martino

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Lee Hancock
Writers: Robert D. Siegel
Languages: English
Countries: Greece, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

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International production across 2 countries: Greece, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Lee Hancock, shot by John Schwartzman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Carter Burwell. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert Frazen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael Keaton and Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "He took someone else's idea and America ate it up.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt4276820 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Lee Hancock directs. John Schwartzman behind the camera. Carter Burwell scores. Robert Frazen cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Greece, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 10 years ago.
2International production across 2 countries: Greece, United States of America.
3Directed by John Lee Hancock, shot by John Schwartzman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Carter Burwell. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Robert Frazen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Michael Keaton and Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "He took someone else's idea and America ate it up.".
8IMDB entry: tt4276820 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "greed", "ambition", "biography", "family business ".

The technical file

Cinematography: John Schwartzman
Original score: Carter Burwell
Editing: Robert Frazen
Production design: Michael Corenblith
Costume design: Daniel Orlandi
Makeup / hair: Michael White
Sound: Gregory King
Stunt coordinator: Jennifer Badger
Runtime: 115 min · 1h 55m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $15,000,000
Box office: $24,121,245
Return: 161% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Founder (2016)

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John Lee Hancock

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2017-10-09
★ 7/10
Veni, vidi, vici! I anticipated another inspiring biopic about a man who built an empire. That's partially true, because this was inspired by the right kind of wrong thing. I mean it was not actually about the McDonalds' story, the McDonald brothers, but the fast food chain McDonald, how the franchise got rapidly spread across the globe and the person behind it. With the film having both good and bad side, it stayed mostly neutral. But due to the main character, you would see too much lean on what seems the reason behind the McDonald's today's popularity. So it's like another typical American founders' story like Apple, Facebook. I mean not the one who found the company with all the hard works, but the one who dived in and took all the credit. Ray Kroc was a traveling salesman and he's not doing any good. But one day he meets the brothers who had started a modernised kitchen and its fast food service. He shows lots of interest in it and so he joins hands with them. With his new ideas, how he makes a fortune out of it and the future of the company, all revealed in the later part. An enjoyable film. Particularly for Michael Keaton. Well directed film as well. Film wise it was a good one, but the story wise not morally right. It was about the flaws in our society, our system. Some men can do anything like pulling others leg to climb the success ladder. It's not them to blame completely, because they had struggled enough to understand their future path. So definitely for some people, this film would inspire. If you are a regular McDonalds' customer, you should watch it. Otherwise, just to learn the truth, it is worth a watch. 7/10
Filipe Manuel Neto2022-08-16
★ 3/10
A decent film, although the story told is substantially stilted and made more tense than it actually was. We all know that the business world is not for boy scouts. As the film's protagonist himself assumes, you have to be prepared for the toughness of competitors and moves that are often disloyal. However, this is precisely why great businessmen are usually people worthy of our disdain: they associate coldness and calculation with intelligence and the cult of the ego, and not infrequently they see other people as numbers or as means of business. McDonald's is undoubtedly a huge, very powerful multinational, and the film reveals how the company was born, at the hands of Ray Kroc, who takes over the company, taking it from the control of the founders – the McDonald Brothers – and transforming it into something that is very different from what they dreamed of, although they were satisfied with the money they received for it afterwards, and that the relations between the three, in real life, were not as tough as the movie makes us think. The screenplay, cleverly written but very bitter and unpleasant, inflated the situation and made it more tense. Like Social Network, the film shows us the controversial origins of one of America's most flourishing companies… and makes us dislike whoever built it. And interestingly, contrary to what I initially thought, the McDonald's Corporation seems to have kept a certain distance from this film… why is it? Michael Keaton did a very good job with the main character and knew how to embody the controversial figure of Kroc well, both in voice and in ideas and mannerisms. The actor deserves, in fact, a praise for the way he gave himself to the work. Also, John Lynch and Nick Offerman are in excellent shape and give us very convincing performances, turning the two founding brothers of the company into a harmonious duo in which one thinks and plans, and the other carries out and executes everything on the ground. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast just doesn't do anything of value and sticks to the most basic. Technically, the film is very low-key, although I have to commend the effort made to recreate and bring back to life some of the company's early restaurants, most notably the one in San Bernardino. The effort to be faithful to the original design was very pleasant, as was the use of very appropriate sets, cars, filming locations and costumes, which take us back to the 50s. The cinematography does a discreet but effective job, and the editing is good, not allowing the film to waste time on unnecessary things or lose its rhythm.
The Movie Mob2022-08-19
★ 7/10
Overall : A brilliant telling of a bleak story that left a disappointing flavor in my soul. I remember the plaque in our McDonalds growing up about its founder, Ray Kroc, but this movie tells a much different story. Suddenly, I am questioning whether or not I should let my two-year-old eat McDonald's anymore! Michael Keaton's relentless portrayal of the opportunistic and duplicitous Ray Kroc is so spectacular that I questioned whether I even liked Keaton. Yet, he is one of my favorite actors! That is just how disheartening the true story of McDonald's' meteoric expansion is. The Founder does an excellent job telling a dispiriting story and does such a thorough job that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the end (pun intended 😉).