Movies like Second Act (2018)
The best movies like Second Act (2018) are The Out-of-Towners (1999), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) and Just My Luck (2006). If Second Act hooked you with its romance and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTo Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)7.5/10 from 865 votes
- NewestRelationship Goals (2026)Released 2026
The Out-of-Towners (1999)
The adventures of married couple Henry and Nancy Clark, vexed by misfortune while in New York City for Henry's job interview.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
A young but bright former window cleaner rises to the top of his company by following the advice of a book about ruthless advancement in business.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust My Luck (2006)
Manhattanite Ashley is known to many as the luckiest woman around. After a chance encounter with a down-and-out young man, however, she realizes that she's swapped her fortune for his.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweet Home Alabama (2002)
New York fashion designer Melanie Carmichael suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But her past holds many secrets—including Jake, the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, Melanie sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRelationship Goals (2026)
When TV producer Leah Caldwell aims to become the first woman running New York's top morning show, her ex competes for the same role. Leah stays focused on her career, until chemistry with her ex challenges her priorities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhatever Works (2009)
Whatever Works explores the relationship between a crotchety misanthrope, Boris and a naïve, impressionable young runaway from the south, Melody. When Melody's uptight parents arrive in New York to rescue her, they are quickly drawn into wildly unexpected romantic entanglements. Everyone discovers that finding love is just a combination of lucky chance and appreciating the value of "whatever works."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCan You Keep a Secret? (2019)
Emma Corrigan, a girl with a few secrets, thinks she’s about to die on a turbulent plane ride. She spills them all to the handsome stranger sitting next to her. At least, she thought he was a stranger. But then, her company’s young and elusive CEO, arrives at the office. It’s him. And he knows every single humiliating detail about her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYour Place or Mine (2023)
When best friends and total opposites Debbie and Peter swap homes for a week, they get a peek into each other's lives that could open the door to love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Advice (2001)
An investment banker loses everything and must discover what's really important in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisHello, Dolly! (1969)
Dolly Levi is a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in order to see the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder. In doing so, she convinces his niece, his niece's intended, and Horace's two clerks to travel to New York City.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReturn to Me (2000)
It took a lot of persuading to get Bob, a recently widowed architect, to go on a blind date at a quirky Irish-Italian eatery. Once there, he’s instantly smitten, not with his date, but with the sharp-witted waitress. Everything seems to be going great until an unbelievable truth is revealed, one that could easily break both of their hearts for good.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSidelined: The QB and Me (2025)
Dallas, a burdened but headstrong dancer, is determined to get into the best dance school in the country—her late mother’s alma mater. However, that dream is suddenly derailed when the cheeky yet secretly grieving football star, Drayton, crashes into her life with a unique story of his own. Will the two of them be able to grow into their dreams together, or will their dreams be sidelined?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tender Trap (1955)
A young actress flirts demurely with a swinging Manhattan bachelor who thinks he has it made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove, Weddings & Other Disasters (2020)
A fussy celebrity caterer, a blind woman, a tour-bus guide and an inexperienced wedding planner search for love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle (2019)
Jordan Sanders, a take-no-prisoners tech mogul, wakes up one morning in the body of her 13-year-old self right before a do-or-die presentation. Her beleaguered assistant April is the only one in on the secret that her daily tormentor is now trapped in an awkward tween body, just as everything is on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Happened to Jane (1959)
Jane Osgood runs a lobster business, which supports her two young children. Railroad staff inattention ruins her shipment, so with her lawyer George, Jane sues Harry Foster Malone, director of the line and the "meanest man in the world".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Intern (2015)
70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Associate (1996)
Laurel Ayres is a businesswoman trying to make it but unfortunately she works at a investment firm where she does all the work but all the senior investors like Frank Peterson grab all the credit. She then leaves and starts her own firm. While trying to find clients Laurel pretends that she has a male partner named Robert Cutty. And when she starts to do well all of her clients wants to meet Cutty which is difficult since he doesn't exist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroadway Danny Rose (1984)
A hapless talent manager named Danny Rose, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. His story is told in flashback, an anecdote shared amongst a group of comedians over lunch at New York's Carnegie Deli. Rose's one-man talent agency represents countless incompetent entertainers, including a one-legged tap dancer, and one slightly talented one: washed-up lounge singer Lou Canova, whose career is on the rebound.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wedding Banquet (1993)
A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlfie (2004)
A tale of a philosophical womanizer who is forced to question his seemingly carefree existence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Lot Like Love (2005)
On a flight from Los Angeles to New York, Oliver and Emily make a connection, only to decide that they are poorly suited to be together. Over the next seven years, however, they are reunited time and time again, they go from being acquaintances to close friends to... lovers?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFor Love or Money (1993)
New York concierge Doug Ireland wants to go into business for himself and refurbish a hotel on Roosevelt Island, N.Y., but he needs an investor. With a few weeks left before his option on the site runs out, Doug agrees to help wealthy Christian Hanover conceal his affair with salesgirl Andy Hart from his wife. Despite his own attraction to Andy, Doug tries to stay focused on getting Christian to invest $3 million in his project.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTorch Song Trilogy (1988)
Arnold Beckoff is looking for love and acceptance, but as a gay man working as a female impersonator in 1970s New York City, neither come easily. After a series of heartaches, Arnold believes he has found the love of his life in Alan, and the couple make plans to adopt. But when tragedy strikes, Arnold's life is shaken to its very core, leading to a confrontation with his overbearing mother, who has never approved of her son's lifestyle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaby Boom (1987)
J.C. Wiatt is a talented and ambitious New York City career woman who is married to her job and working towards partner at her firm. She has a live-in relationship with Steven, a successful investment broker who, along with J.C., agreed children aren't part of the plan. J.C.'s life takes an unexpected turn when a distant relative dies and the will appoints her the caretaker of their baby girl, Elizabeth. The baby's sudden arrival causes Steven to leave, breaking off their relationship. Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But she won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it all and on her own terms too!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Veteran drag queens Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson take novice Chi-Chi Rodriguez under their wing on a madcap road trip across the country to compete in the Drag Queen of America pageant in Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers while the authorities question about the method of their escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Affair to Remember (1957)
A couple falls in love and agrees to meet in six months at the Empire State Building - but will it happen?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBugsy Malone (1976)
New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah who wants Bugsy for herself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Second Act?
The closest matches to Second Act are The Out-of-Towners (1999), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) and Just My Luck (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Second Act?
Start with The Out-of-Towners (1999), the closest match to Second Act.
What is the highest-rated movie like Second Act?
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), rated 7.5/10 by 865 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Second Act?
Relationship Goals (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Second Act?
Yes: The Out-of-Towners (1999), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967) and Just My Luck (2006).
How are movies similar to Second Act chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Second Act, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.