Movies like The Lilac Thief (2019)
The best movies like The Lilac Thief (2019) are The Lost City (2022), Nightmare Alley (1947) and Knight and Day (2010). If The Lilac Thief hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHow to Steal a Million (1966)7.5/10 from 693 votes
- NewestJingle Bell Heist (2025)Released 2025
The Lost City (2022)
Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to the ancient city's lost treasure that featured in her latest story. Alan, determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, sets off to rescue her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNightmare Alley (1947)
A roustabout joins a traveling carny and schemes to figure out the mind-reading act of Mademoiselle Zeena and her alcoholic husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnight and Day (2010)
A fugitive couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeception (2008)
As a corporate auditor who works in a number of different offices, Jonathan McQuarry wanders without an anchor among New York's power brokers. A chance meeting with charismatic lawyer Wyatt Bose leads to Jonathan's introduction to The List, an underground sex club. Jonathan begins an affair with a woman known only as S, who introduces Jonathan to a world of treachery and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTopkapi (1964)
Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomancing the Stone (1984)
Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ladykillers (1955)
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTreasure Island (1950)
Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey and Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribbean island. Unfortunately, a large number of Flint's old pirate crew are aboard the ship, including Long John Silver.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Steal a Million (1966)
A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sleepover (2020)
Two siblings who discover their seemingly normal mom is a former thief in witness protection. Mom is forced to pull one last job, and the kids team up to rescue her over the course of an action-packed night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJingle Bell Heist (2025)
Two down-on-their-luck hourly workers team up to rob a posh London department store on Christmas Eve. Will they steal each other's hearts along the way?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Two Faces of January (2014)
After he kills a detective, a con artist and his wife must trust a potentially dangerous stranger to help them get out of Greece.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHorrible Bosses 2 (2014)
Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStardust (2007)
In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. His journey takes him into a world beyond his wildest dreams and reveals his true identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Toy (1982)
On one of his bratty son Eric's annual visits, the plutocrat U.S. Bates takes him to his department store and offers him anything in it as a gift. Eric chooses a black janitor who has made him laugh with his antics. At first the man suffers many indignities as Eric's "toy", but gradually teaches the lonely boy what it is like to have and to be a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisWho's Harry Crumb? (1989)
Harry Crumb is a bumbling and inept private investigator who is hired to solve the kidnapping of a young heiress which he's not expected to solve because his employer is the mastermind behind the kidnapping.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisO Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDead of Winter (2025)
A widowed fisherwoman, travelling alone through snowbound northern Minnesota, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenage girl. Hours from the nearest town and with no phone service, she realizes that she is the young girl's only hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Bored billionaire executive Thomas Crown decides to plan a robbery and assigns a professional agent with the right information to the job. However, Crown is soon betrayed yet cannot blow his cover as he’s fallen in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Lilac Thief?
The closest matches to The Lilac Thief are The Lost City (2022), Nightmare Alley (1947) and Knight and Day (2010). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Lilac Thief?
Start with The Lost City (2022), the closest match to The Lilac Thief.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Lilac Thief?
How to Steal a Million (1966), rated 7.5/10 by 693 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Lilac Thief?
Jingle Bell Heist (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Lilac Thief?
Yes: The Lost City (2022), Nightmare Alley (1947) and Knight and Day (2010).
How are movies similar to The Lilac Thief chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Lilac Thief, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.