Jerry & Marge Go Large

Married couple Jerry and Marge Selbee live in Evart, Michigan. Jerry retires after forty-two years as a production line manager. A month later, he finally tries to take out his new motorboat but accidentally smashes it.

Jerry goes into the local gas station shop and overhears the clerk explaining the improved chance of winning the WinFall lottery in Michigan after a rolldown. Being a mathematician, Jerry figures out a statistical loophole to repeatedly win.

Deducing that by purchasing a sufficiently large quantity of tickets, the "rolldown" guarantees a greater return, Jerry withdraws over $2,000 to purchase tickets. He has a loss, but Marge inspires him. He realizes increasing his sample size would increase his chances. Jerry empties their account, and the $8,000 makes $15,000.

Jerry is not able to keep the win a secret, and Marge decides they should go for it. Once WinFall is shut down in Michigan, it is still operational in Massachusetts, so Marge organizes a 10-hour road trip. At a small liquor store in a small town they spend all day printing the tickets, again doubling their money.

Arriving home in Evart, Marge proposes creating a small company to help the whole town. Jerry's accountant helps them create the corporation GS Investment Strategies. People can buy a share at $500. To ensure they can use the WinFall machine afterhours, they make Bill, the liquor store owner, a partner.

As the Evart company grows, the townspeople revitalize the community. Jerry knows that their luck cannot last forever, that it will eventually get shut down so they are careful to invest the money. One couple rebuilds the town's Jazz Fest venue and others revamp and reopen their businesses. The company gets another lottery machine installed in a nearby eatery in Sunderland, Massachusetts, to increase their volume.

Simultaneously, a Harvard mathematics student also sees WinFall's potential. Enlisting the resources of his dorm mates, they make $50,000 but realize it was less than anticipated because someone else must also have discovered the loophole. A skilled hacker taps into the state lottery and tracks their main competition to two Sunderland locations.

Travelling to the small town, Tyler and Eric find Jerry and Marge celebrating their 46th anniversary. Introducing themselves, they describe their Harvard betting club, Random Industries. The haughty and condescending Tyler tells them to add their money to their 'pot' and leave the betting to them. Using a multitude of references to the couple's advanced ages, he talks of the film 'Up' and rocking chairs. Marge is outraged, Jerry politely but firmly declines. The smirky Tyler throws out a mathematical term, intending to humble them but Jerry one-ups them, pointing out the students' way of submitting their numbers is less efficient.

In Evart, Tyler finds Jerry at the gas station where he gets his morning coffee and demands he stop playing WinFall effective immediately. The cocky bully threatens to hack into his and the other investors in GS Investment Strategies' accounts, credit and identity if they do not back down immediately.

Jerry almost caves, announcing to the investors they must stop playing WinFall due to unforeseen circumstances. The gas station attendant whispers to Jerry's son about the kid's threatening visit. So he follows his dad out and asks him to not let them be bullied. Their little endeavor has restored the townspeople's self-confidence and improved their lives. Marge also rallies Jerry, reminding him of their wild side.

When the Harvard students run the numbers, they discover that Jerry has not backed down. Tyler proposes they artificially create a rolldown, getting Harvard students' parents to invest. They are successful, Jerry realises Tyler's tactic and confronts him in front of his coconspirators, pointing out his selfish tactic is hurting others.

To level the playing field, Jerry directly requests the Massachusetts State Lottery board publicly announce when reaching rolldown. Soon after, Boston Globe reporter Maya Jordan shows up in Evart, as she has been working on the story for months. Both Jerry and Tyler are reported to receive big payouts every three weeks. The article causes the lottery commission to confiscate the Sunderland machines and pull the plug definitively after that week's drawing. Unbeknownst to the Selbees, their investors took a bus to Massachusetts and played all over the state, getting in their last big win.

In April 2018, it was reported that Levantine Films and Netter Films would produce a film adaptation of Jason Fagone's HuffPost article "Jerry and Marge Go Large", with Brad Copeland writing the screenplay.[4] In June 2021, it was announced that Paramount+ had greenlit the film, set to be directed by David Frankel and star Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening.[5]

Filming began in July 2021 in Georgia, with Rainn Wilson, Larry Wilmore and Jake McDorman joining the cast.[6][7] In August 2021, Uly Schlesinger, Michael McKean, Anna Camp, Ann Harada, and Devyn McDowell joined the cast.[8]

The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 15, 2022.[1][9] It was released on Paramount+ on June 17, 2022.[10]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 68% of 56 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Instead of investing in its tremendously talented stars and outlandish fact-based story, Jerry & Marge Go Large gambles on a pile of clichés."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[12]

• Jerry & Marge Go Large at IMDb
• "Jerry and Marge Go Large" by Jason Fagone