Movies like The Next Big Thing (2001)
The best movies like The Next Big Thing (2001) are The Tao of Steve (2000), The Right Kind of Wrong (2013) and Dean (2016). If The Next Big Thing hooked you with its comedy and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated¿Quieres ser mi hijo? (2023)8.4/10 from 378 votes
- NewestPlayers (2024)Released 2024
The Tao of Steve (2000)
In college, Dex was the big man on campus. Ten years later, now an overweight kindergarten teacher, Dex is immune to the shocked stares of the women who were once his conquests. While trying to pick up the bartender, he is struck by the gorgeous Syd. Through a series of circumstances, Syd and Dex are thrown together and he soon finds himself questioning his belief in all things Steve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Right Kind of Wrong (2013)
A stubborn idealist spies a bride on her way to her wedding and immediately falls in love with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisDean (2016)
A comedy about loss, grief, and the redemptive power of love. Dean is a NY illustrator who falls hard for an LA woman while trying to prevent his father from selling the family home in the wake of his mother's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisSex Appeal (2022)
Avery, a teenager with a tendency towards perfectionism, enlists her friend Larson to help her prepare for her first time with her long-distance boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBye Bye Love (1995)
With varying degrees of success, recently divorced friends Dave, Vic and Donny are trying to move on with their lives. Vic feels vilified by his ex-wife's parents, while Donny has a shaky bond with his teen daughter, Emma. Dave, meanwhile, has an enviable problem -- he has more dates than he can handle. As they confront their post-marital challenges, the men take solace in one another's plights.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this¿Quieres ser mi hijo? (2023)
Lu, a conformist woman in her forties, learns that her 15-year partner has been having extramarital affairs. Starting from scratch, she gets involved in an unexpected relationship with a young womanizer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Incredible Jessica James (2017)
Burned by a bad breakup, a struggling New York City playwright makes an unlikely connection with a divorced app designer she meets on a blind date.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCuban Fury (2014)
Beneath Bruce Garrett's under-confident, overweight exterior, the passionate heart of a salsa king lies dormant. Now, one woman is about to reignite his Latin fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow I Got Into College (1989)
High school senior Marlon Bowne is smitten with overachieving classmate Jessica Kailo. But, if he wants to have a shot with her, he'll have to find a way to get into Ramsey College, Jessica's top choice of schools. It won't be easy, since the college is highly selective and Marlon's grades are hardly impressive. That means the lovelorn teen will have to find a way to score high on the SATs and win over the college admissions committee.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Nice Girl Like You (2020)
Lucy Neal is thrown for a loop when she is accused of being too inhibited by her ex-boyfriend. In an effort to prove him wrong, Lucy creates a rather wild to-do list that sends her on a whirlwind and surprising journey of self-discovery, friendship, and new love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisPlayers (2024)
New York sportswriter Mack has spent years devising successful hook-up "plays" with her friends, but when she unexpectedly falls for one of her targets, she must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDesperados (2020)
A panicked young woman and her two best friends fly to Mexico to delete a ranting email she sent to her new boyfriend. On arrival, they run into her former beau, who soon gets caught up in their frantic scheme.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe List (2023)
After her fiance sleeps with a celebrity on his free pass list, Abby Meyers, with nothing but five names and a fantasy shared by millions, sets out for Los Angeles to sleep with someone from hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Long Weekend (2005)
Cooper is an actor who sees life as one big party, while Ed is in advertising and takes life too seriously. When Ed gets stressed over a deadline he has to meet, his brother Cooper works hard in trying to get his brother hooked up with a girl, thus a long weekend of stress and beautiful women, culminating in Ed meeting, and making love to, the woman of his dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisLong Weekend (2021)
Bart's chance encounter with the enigmatic Vienna leads to a whirlwind weekend together. The two fall fast and hard, but both carry secrets that could be their undoing or the chance for a fresh start.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Fake Boyfriend (2022)
A young man in a tricky situation follows the advice of his unconventional best friend and uses social media to create a fake boyfriend to keep his awful ex-lover out of his life. But everything backfires when he meets the real love of his life, and breaking up with his fake boyfriend proves hard to do.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisFeast of the Seven Fishes (2019)
A slice of life story that follows a large Italian family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes, reminisce about the past and seek love in the future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Want You Back (2022)
Peter and Emma thought they were on the precipice of life’s biggest moments – marriage, kids, and houses in the suburbs – until their respective partners dumped them. Horrified to learn that the loves of their lives have already moved on, Peter and Emma hatch a hilarious plan to win back their exes with unexpected results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Owl and the Pussycat (1970)
Meek, owlish Felix and strident, catty Doris live in the same apartment building. His incessant typing bothers her; her gentlemen callers bother him. Felix informs the landlord of her activities, so Doris moves in on Felix. When they both get thrown out, they move in with Barney... until they drive him out! That's when Felix and Doris finally decide to put theory into practice. But do opposites attract?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Right (2016)
A girl falls for the "perfect" guy, who happens to have a very fatal flaw: he's a hitman on the run from the crime cartels who employ him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Run (2004)
When a young accountant is devastated after discovering his inspiringly beautiful girlfriend is cheating on him, his best friend, who's engaged to a girl he doesn't love, convinces him to go on a "run" and sleep with as many women as he can to get over his heart break.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
The Wendell Baker Story (2005)
Luke Wilson plays a good-hearted ex-con who gets a job in a retirement hotel. Three elderly residents help him win back his girlfriend as he lends them a hand in fighting hotel corruption.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisIt's in the Water (1997)
When hordes of gays and lesbians come out "of the closet" in the fictional town of Azalea Springs, Texas, intolerant residents go into a panic about the water supply.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & comedy
State of Bacon (2014)
State of Bacon tells the kinda real but mostly fake tale of an oddball group of characters leading up to the annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. Bacon-enthusiasts, Governor Branstad, a bacon queen, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, members of PETA, and an envoy of Icelanders are not excluded from this bacon party and during the course of the film become intertwined with the organizers of the festival to show that bacon diplomacy is not dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Getting Wasted (1980)
An uptight military school gets a dose of hippie-infused rebellion when a group of students gather in support of the 1960s uprising going on around them. When a few students decide to bring the more liberal, artsy side of the revolution onto campus, they face opposition from much of the school's staff.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Smoke (1995)
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpun (2003)
Over the course of three days, Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks – including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook – but all he really wants to do is hook up with his ex-girlfriend, Amy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPig! (1996)
An innocent nose pick ends in disaster!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood (1986)
Faustus is a clerk in St. John's at the Newfoundland Department of Education. He dreams of becoming ruler of Newfoundland and seceding from Canada. In the real world, Faustus' boss Eddie Peddle plans to indoctrinate the citizenry of Newfoundland with a cult-like geometric theory known as Total Education, but Peddle may be foiled by the revelation of a secret from his past career.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Lonely Street (2009)
Bubba Mabry, a gullible private detective, becomes the prime suspect in a tabloid reporter's murder after being hired to snoop on him by a mysterious celebrity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like The Next Big Thing and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Next Big Thing?
The closest matches to The Next Big Thing are The Tao of Steve (2000), The Right Kind of Wrong (2013) and Dean (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Next Big Thing?
Start with The Tao of Steve (2000), the closest match to The Next Big Thing.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Next Big Thing?
¿Quieres ser mi hijo? (2023), rated 8.4/10 by 378 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Next Big Thing?
Players (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Next Big Thing?
Yes: The Tao of Steve (2000), The Right Kind of Wrong (2013) and Dean (2016).
How are movies similar to The Next Big Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Next Big Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.