Movies like Rent (2005)
The best movies like Rent (2005) are Get Real (1998), West Side Story (1961) and The Object of My Affection (1998). If Rent hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBohemian Rhapsody (2018)7.9/10 from 18,214 votes
- NewestProm Party Massacre (2025)Released 2025
Get Real (1998)
Sensitive rural town model student Steven Carter hides his gay feelings, except with his neighbor and best friend Linda. Suddenly his desperate search for partners leads to a blind date with golden boy John Dixon, bound for an Oxbridge career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWest Side Story (1961)
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Object of My Affection (1998)
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisWest Side Story (2021)
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomeo + Juliet (1996)
In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7th Heaven (1927)
In 1910s Paris, a sewer worker disillusioned with Christianity feels his prayers have been answered when he chances upon a street waif and they fall in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSupernova (2020)
Sam and Tusker, partners of 20 years, are traveling across England in their old RV visiting friends, family and places from their past. Since Tusker was diagnosed with early-onset dementia two years ago, their time together is the most important thing they have. As the trip progresses, however, their ideas for the future clash, secrets come out, and their love for each other is tested as never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Gatsby (2013)
Nick Carraway arrives in New York in 1922, an era of loose morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick encounters the mysterious millionaire Gatsby and his bewitching cousin Daisy. Soon, Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. Bearing witness to this new world, Nick pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and unforgettable tragedy -- mirroring our own times and struggles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYentl (1983)
In a time when girls were forbidden to study religious scriptures, a Jewish girl masquerades as a boy to enter religious training and unexpectedly finds love along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Gets a Room (2021)
January 1942, in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Thousands of Jews have been confined to the Warsaw ghetto for more than a year. Outside, life goes on; inside, they struggle to survive another day. Still, on a cold winter night, a group of Jewish actors manage to stage a lively musical comedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thistick, tick... BOOM! (2021)
On the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWere the World Mine (2008)
If you had a love-potion, who would you make fall madly in love with you? Timothy, prone to escaping his dismal high school reality through dazzling musical daydreams, gets to answer that question in a very real way. After his eccentric teacher casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he stumbles upon a recipe hidden within the script to create the play's magical, purple love-pansy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnd the Band Played On (1993)
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAugust Rush (2007)
Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPhiladelphia (1993)
Two lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSing Sing (2024)
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoy Erased (2018)
Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdvise & Consent (1962)
Proposed by the President of the United States to fill the post of Secretary of State, Robert Leffingwell appears before a Senate committee, chaired by the idealistic Senator Brig Anderson, which must decide whether he is the right person for the job.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOliver! (1968)
Musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, a classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the workhouse and joins up with a group of boys headed by the Artful Dodger and trained to be pickpockets by master thief Fagin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNuovo Olimpo (2023)
In 1970s Rome, a casual encounter between Enea and Pietro at a movie theater turns into an unforgettable romance — until destiny pulls them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild Awakening (2016)
Toni and Emma are brother and sister who owns a stable farm. Ramon and his son, Aaron works for them. Toni is openly gay and loves to party, Emma has a crush on Aaron who is a closeted gay who is afraid that his father might find out, but his father also has a secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Card Zero (2023)
Before disappearing in the Mojave Desert, Robbie Zagorac captured love, life and heartbreak in a video diary.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Prom Party Massacre (2025)
A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Been So Long (2018)
A single mother in London's Camden Town hears music when she meets a handsome stranger with a past. But she's not sure she's ready to open her heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisNewsies (2017)
A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLa Grande Bouffe (1973)
Four friends gather at a villa with the intention of eating themselves to death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGet Over It (2001)
When Berke Landers, a popular high school basketball star, gets dumped by his life-long girlfriend, Allison, he soon begins to lose it. But with the help of his best friend Felix's sister Kelly, he follows his ex into the school's spring musical. Thus ensues a love triangle loosely based upon Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", where Berke is only to find himself getting over Allison and beginning to fall for Kelly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisPinsky (2017)
Sophia Pinsky seems like a functioning adult. But when she loses her girlfriend and her grandfather in the same day and moves back in with her authoritarian Russian grandmother, Marina, everything she thought she’d escaped is waiting to welcome her back with open arms. Thrilled to have Sophia under her influence again, and obsessed with finding her a proper (male) partner, Marina conspires to marry her off to Trevor, a nice Jewish boy Sophia has known since they were in diapers. After the date with him is a dud, Sophia finds her way to a weekly open mic night, where on a whim she gets on stage and discovers there’s actually an audience for her Queer-Russian-Jewish-American sense of humor. Everything comes to a head at the family Shabbat dinner when Sophia and Trevor try to humiliate Marina by pretending to have fallen for each other, unaware that Marina is planning her own announcement.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cry-Baby (1990)
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Rent?
The closest matches to Rent are Get Real (1998), West Side Story (1961) and The Object of My Affection (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Rent?
Start with Get Real (1998), the closest match to Rent.
What is the highest-rated movie like Rent?
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), rated 7.9/10 by 18,214 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Rent?
Prom Party Massacre (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Rent?
Yes: Get Real (1998), West Side Story (1961) and The Object of My Affection (1998).
How are movies similar to Rent chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Rent, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.