Was Wolf of Wall Street a knockoff of Boiler Room?

It certainly felt like that.

Well.....

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Boiler Room is a 2000 American crime drama film written and directed by Ben Younger, and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin, and Jamie Kennedy.

The film is based on interviews the writer conducted with numerous brokers over a two-year period, and is inspired by the firm Stratton Oakmont and the life of Jordan Belfort, whose autobiography was later adapted into Martin Scorsese's 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort.

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boiler room was not better

Googled and found this.

Revisiting Boiler Room, the safe, redemptive Wolf of Wall Street predecessor

Revisiting Boiler Room (2000) after soaking up The Wolf of Wall Street is like being lied to after a horrific accident. Both movies are based on Jordan Belfort’s misadventures at the Long Island penny stock scam factor Stratton Oakmont. And that’s about where the similarities end. Boiler Room is the movie for those outraged at Wolf’s lack of redemption. It’s the happy ending version of a tale that really has no happy ending.

But it still ain’t bad, even if its version of Belfort, named Michael Brantley here, is played by a mealy-mouthed Tom Everett Scott. He shows up every half hour or so before skulking back to his office. Not a very bad boy compared to Leonardo DiCaprio’s whoring, coke-snorting Belfort. Instead, the focus is on a conscience-stricken junior broker, played by Giovanni Ribisi, who acts as a sort of audience surrogate. In this sense Boiler Room is rather traditional. No amorality here. The really bad guys get punished, and we leave feeling righteous – which doesn’t stop us from reveling in the fugazi tough-guy antics of Vin Diesel, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan and the less scrupulous brokers at JT Marlin, the movie’s Stratton Oakmont stand-in.

The Wolf of Wall Street, up for five Oscars (including best picture), is a far superior film for many reasons. Here’s the most important: It doesn’t give us an easy out. Here we have bad guys doing bad things and enjoying it – and making us enjoy it. It has caused furious debate, as bold art often does. Is Scorsese celebrating these heathens? If so, is he implicating us in the celebration? These are tricky questions and provocative issues. They matter, and they make the movie matter. By pushing its Belfort to the background and focusing on a conflicted young man trying to please his dad (the great character actor Ron Rifkin), Boiler Room plays a combustible subject safe.

Same source material, to a large degree.

Pretty sure they are based on te same company sooo

haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street yet, but Boiler Room was great.

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Was Wolf of Wall Street a knockoff of Boiler Room?

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I don't know, but it was easily one of the most overrated movies to come through Hollywood in a while IMO.

It was good, but just that...good. Nowhere near awesome IMO, and certainly not "best picture" awesome or "top movies of 2013 list" good.

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yeah , i see boiler room being way deeper and having many more layers and more character depth than wolf of wall street. Wolf of Wall Street is Blow, its an Entourage episode (pick one), it's a shiny toy, nothing like boiler room.

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you understand nothing

I just felt like Wolf was kind of like the first Hangover, everybody jumps on it b/c people are doing drugs and there tittys and what not. Take away all that and it's pretty lame. Boiler room has the tension of the guy and his dad, the tension of the new money guys vs the old money, an interacial relationship.. ect ect... way more of a "film" imo

also Ribisi's hustle as a gambling house made his rise more believable.