Movies like Arena (2001)
The best movies like Arena (2001) are The Souvenir (2019), How High (2001) and The Souvenir: Part II (2021). If Arena hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Arena
Quick picks
- Highest ratedJim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)7.5/10 from 761 votes
- NewestSwiped (2025)Released 2025
The Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow High (2001)
Jamal and Silas, two ordinary guys who smoke something magical, pass their college entrance exams with flying colors and end up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Souvenir: Part II (2021)
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPetals on the Wind (2014)
This sequel to Flowers in the Attic picks up 10 years after Cathy, Chris and Carrie managed to escape Foxworth Hall.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoison (2023)
When a poisonous snake slithers onto an Englishman's stomach in India, his associate and a doctor race to save him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSwiped (2025)
Whitney Wolfe uses extraordinary grit and ingenuity to break into the male-dominated tech industry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Air Up There (1994)
Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball coach who wants a big promotion. To get it, he needs to make a dramatic find. He ends up deep in Africa, hoping to recruit Saleh, a huge basketball prodigy Jimmy glimpsed in a home movie. But Saleh is the chief's son and has responsibilities at home, since the tribe's land is threatened by a mining company with its own hotshot basketball team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisStar Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion (2014)
It is a dark time. The Jedi are no more, and the Empire rules the galaxy with an iron fist -- bringing tyranny to the Outer Rim world of Lothal. Their ominous presence is a cloud over the planet, squashing any hope of freedom or a better life, especially for 14-year-old orphan Ezra Bridger. But the young con artist soon finds that destiny has other plans for him, as he encounters a small band of rebels who dare to strike back against the Empire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)
Through the lens of his stunningly immersive performance as Andy Kaufman, Jim Carrey ponders the meaning of life, reality, identity and career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trouble with Angels (1966)
Mary and her friend, Rachel, are new students at St. Francis Academy, a boarding school run by the iron fist of Mother Superior. The immature teens grow bored and begin playing pranks on both the unsuspecting nuns and their unpleasant classmates, becoming a constant thorn in Mother Superior's side. However, as the years pass, Mary and Rachel slowly mature and begin to see the nuns in a different light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
Fred is cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in a stage adaption of the classic Christmas story, but is acting a bit stingy in real life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Brilliant Career (1979)
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReal Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Arena?
The closest matches to Arena are The Souvenir (2019), How High (2001) and The Souvenir: Part II (2021). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Arena?
Start with The Souvenir (2019), the closest match to Arena.
What is the highest-rated movie like Arena?
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017), rated 7.5/10 by 761 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Arena?
Swiped (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Arena?
Yes: The Souvenir (2019), How High (2001) and The Souvenir: Part II (2021).
How are movies similar to Arena chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Arena, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.