Movies like It Happened One Night (1998)
The best movies like It Happened One Night (1998) are The Best You Can (2025), Danny Deckchair (2003) and A California Christmas (2020). If It Happened One Night hooked you with its comedy and romance, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA California Christmas (2020)6.4/10 from 382 votes
- NewestThe Baltimorons (2025)Released 2025
The Best You Can (2025)
Cynthia Rand is a buttoned-up New Yorker married to a brilliant professor 25 years her senior. She begins feeling the effects of her husband’s advancing age on their relationship, just as her world is turned upside down by the arrival of sharp but chronically underachieving security guard Stan Olszewski in this smart rom-com that reunites Bacon and Sedgwick on screen for the first time in 20 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDanny Deckchair (2003)
An unappreciated laborer's patience reaches breaking point when his girlfriend cancels a romantic holiday. Making light of the situation, he decides to tie hundreds of helium balloons to a chair in an outlandish bid to float to a new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA California Christmas (2020)
With his carefree lifestyle on the line, a wealthy charmer poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA California Christmas: City Lights (2021)
Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChéri (2009)
The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCamille (2008)
A twisted honeymoon adventure about a young couple on their way to Niagara Falls.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
Two married couples find only trouble and heartache as their complicated lives unfold. After 40 years of marriage, Alfie leaves his wife to pursue what he thinks is happiness with a call girl. His wife, Helena, reeling from abandonment, decides to follow the advice of a psychic. Sally, the daughter of Alfie and Helena, is unhappy in her marriage and develops a crush on her boss, while her husband, Roy, falls for a woman engaged to be married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSidewalks of New York (2001)
The film follows the marital and dating lives of three men and three women who unknowingly form a tangled web of relationships. Interspersing "man on the street" interviews with scenes from the six characters' lives, the film weaves a humorous and biting commentary on the game of love -- easy to start, hard to finish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Giant Mechanical Man (2012)
An offbeat romantic comedy about a silver-painted street performer and the soft spoken zoo worker who falls for him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdges of the Lord (2001)
A 12-year-old Jewish boy hides with a family of Catholic peasant farmers to escape the Nazis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Baltimorons (2025)
A newly sober man's Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrictly Sexual (2008)
Two successful women, sick and tired of dating and relationships, decide to keep two young men in their pool house for strictly sexual purposes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtracurricular Activities (2019)
The outrageous life of Reagan Collins, a model high school student with a "killer" after-school job that involves arranging “accidents” for his classmates' parents. When seasoned police detective Cliff Dawkins starts putting the pieces together, it's a battle of wits to see if Reagan can keep business booming.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMumford (1999)
When a would-be psychologist, curiously named Dr. Mumford, comes to the idyllic town of the same name and offers his talent for listening and a disarming frankness, the town's quirkiest citizens scramble for a seat on his couch. As he lightens hearts darkened by old secrets no one realizes he's hiding a whopper of his own, or that he's fallen head over heels for one of his patients!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe Said, She Said (1991)
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBreaking & Exiting (2018)
Harry, a charming house thief, gets more than he bargains for during an attempted burglary when he stumbles upon Daisy and decides to save her from herself, sending both of them into a darkly comedic journey of self discovery and love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJack Goes Boating (2010)
A limo driver's blind date sparks a tale of love, betrayal, friendship and grace—centered on two working-class New York City couples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNumb (2007)
Hudson Milbank is a successful Hollywood screenwriter who suddenly and strangely finds himself without any emotional feelings. He tries doctor after doctor and shrink after shrink, but nothing works. The Golf Channel, lesbian exercise classes and a dizzying variety of pills get him through the day, but don't quite solve his problem. His writing partner tries everything to get him back to normal, but it's not until Hudson meets Sara that he finds a real motivation to get better and to actually start feeling again. From the writer of Deuce Bigalow, comes NUMB, a romantic comedy following an unusual man looking for strange love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSitting in Bars with Cake (2023)
Extrovert Corinne convinces Jane, a shy, talented baker, to commit to a year of bringing cakes to bars, to help her meet people and build confidence. But when Corinne receives a life-altering diagnosis, the pair faces a challenge unlike anything they've experienced before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadame (2017)
Anne and Bob, a well-to-do American couple, have just moved to a beautiful manor house in romantic Paris. To impress their sophisticated friends, they decide to host a lavish dinner party, but must disguise their maid as a noblewoman to even out the number of guests. When the maid runs off with a wealthy guest, Anne must chase her around Paris to thwart the joyous and unexpected love affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like It Happened One Night?
The closest matches to It Happened One Night are The Best You Can (2025), Danny Deckchair (2003) and A California Christmas (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after It Happened One Night?
Start with The Best You Can (2025), the closest match to It Happened One Night.
What is the highest-rated movie like It Happened One Night?
A California Christmas (2020), rated 6.4/10 by 382 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like It Happened One Night?
The Baltimorons (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to It Happened One Night chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside It Happened One Night, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.