Movies like The Biggest Show on Earth (1918)
The best movies like The Biggest Show on Earth (1918) are 1 Chance 2 Dance (2014), Gigi & Nate (2022) and Won't Back Down (2012). If The Biggest Show on Earth hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
1 Chance 2 Dance (2014)
When a 17-year old aspiring dancer is uprooted in her high school senior year, she finds herself divided between two boys, and she will have one last shot at making her dream a reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGracie (2007)
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Together Now (2020)
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorgetown (2019)
Ulrich Mott is an eccentric and versatile social climber with grandiose plans to affect United States foreign policy. Encouraged in his attempts by his strategically chosen (and much older) wife, the well-connected journalist Elsa Brecht, Mott has a knack for making himself indispensable and impossible to ignore. The only one seemingly immune to his charms is Elsa's daughter Amanda, who might simply disapprove of her mother marrying a much younger man - or perhaps she senses something more sinister beneath the smooth-talking surface?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Family Skeleton (1918)
Wealthy young Billy Bates's greatest fear is that he has inherited his family curse: drink. But when he falls for a beautiful showgirl from the Ziegfeld Follies, she shows him he has nothing to fear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Woman Who Walked Alone (1922)
When Iris Champneys’ marriage to the Earl of Lemister ends in divorce she moves to Africa to operate a tavern. Seven years later she becomes reacquainted with Clement Gaunt, formerly employed by Lemister and secretly in love with Iris, who is on the run after being falsely accused of the murder of the owner of the ranch where he was once foreman. The real culprit, the rancher’s wife Hannah, accused Clem when he refused to run away with her. Iris, learning of his predicament, rides to Hannah Schriemann, telling her that Clem has been executed for her crime. When the police bring Clem to the house, Hannah--frightened by his "ghost"--confesses, and Iris and Clem find a way to happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
What a Wife Learned (1923)
A novelist's success causes a rift between her and her rancher husband.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Promise (1917)
After an argument with his father, in which he is accused of stealing, Bill Carmody leaves home. His girlfriend Ethel is mad at him because of his carousing. So he heads out West, but he gets in a railroad accident and saves the life of Appleton, who owns a lumber mill. To reward Bill, Appleton gives him a job, and it doesn't take him long to discern that Buck Moncrossen, the camp boss, is crooked.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Man Life Passed By (1923)
Inventor John Turbin vows vengeance when "Iron Man" Moore, a wealthy iron industrialist, steals his plans. Poverty and disappointment make him a derelict, but he forgives his enemy and finds happiness after Moore's daughters, Hope and Joy, befriend him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Camille of the Barbary Coast (1925)
For the sake of a woman, Robert Morton serves a prison sentence and is disowned by his father, Henry. He is freed after several years and arrives in San Francisco, California, where he meets Camille Balishaw in a Barbary Coast saloon. She offers Robert shelter and aids in his rehabilitation, but his prison record prevents him from holding a job. After Camille and Robert are married, he finds another job and gradually regains his self-respect. Henry has a change of heart and seeks out Robert, asking him to return home, but without Camille. Robert remains loyal to his wife, forcing Henry to relent as he realizes the depth of their love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Woman and the Puppet (1920)
Don Mateo, a swaggering Spaniard, tosses women aside without a care. But when he falls under the spell of the tempestuous Concha Perez, it is Don Mateo who finds himself tossed about.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Red Hot Dollars (1919)
A young man working in a steel mill falls in love with an old Scotsman's daughter. The young man saves the life of the steel-mill owner and is adopted by him. But then he learns that the Scotsman and the mill owner are mortal enemies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002)
The strange comedy film of two close brothers; one, Wilbur, who wants to kill himself, and the other, Harbour, who tries to prevent this. When their father dies leaving them his bookstore they meet a woman who makes their lives a bit better yet with a bit more trouble as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valley Without Spring (1972)
Two men living in a snow-bound town in the mountains fall in love with the same girl
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Biggest Show on Earth and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Biggest Show on Earth?
The closest matches to The Biggest Show on Earth are 1 Chance 2 Dance (2014), Gigi & Nate (2022) and Won't Back Down (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Biggest Show on Earth?
Start with 1 Chance 2 Dance (2014), the closest match to The Biggest Show on Earth.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Biggest Show on Earth?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Biggest Show on Earth?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Biggest Show on Earth?
Yes: 1 Chance 2 Dance (2014), Gigi & Nate (2022) and Won't Back Down (2012).
How are movies similar to The Biggest Show on Earth chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Biggest Show on Earth, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.