50 Movies Like Dirty Dancing (1987) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Dirty Dancing details →Emile Ardolino's 1987 romance follows seventeen-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman, who expects a dull family summer in the Catskills and instead finds herself filling in for a professional dancer and falling unexpectedly in love. Built around music, movement and a coming-of-age spark, it's an earnest crowd-pleaser about first passion and stepping out of your comfort zone. It suits viewers who want warmth, dancing and romance over grit or complexity, and it lands especially well as comfort viewing. If you're in the mood for a nostalgic summer-set love story carried by its rhythm and chemistry, this delivers. Come for the feel-good energy and the pull of the dance floor rather than plot surprises.
If you loved Dirty Dancing (1987) by Emile Ardolino, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are A Star Is Born, Clouds, Moulin Rouge!. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Dirty Dancing
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Dirty Dancing in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
A Star Is Born
2018 · Bradley Cooper
Seasoned musician Jackson Maine discovers — and falls in love with — struggling artist Ally. She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer — until Jack coaxes her into the spotli
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
Clouds
2020 · Justin Baldoni
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral mus
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
Moulin Rouge!
2001 · Baz Luhrmann
A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world o
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
Step Up 2: The Streets
2008 · Jon M. Chu
When rebellious street dancer Andie West lands at the elite Maryland School of the Arts, she finds herself fighting to fit in while also trying to hold onto her old life. When she joins forces with th
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
Walk the Line
2005 · James Mangold
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
9 Songs
2004 · Michael Winterbottom
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - Lon
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
The Sound of Music
1965 · Robert Wise
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music
In common: Drama · Music
CODA
2021 · Sian Heder
As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family's fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and h
In common: Drama · Music · Romance
Drumline
2002 · Charles Stone III
A talented street drummer from Harlem enrolls in a Southern university, expecting to lead its marching band's drumline to victory. He initially flounders in his new world, before realizing that it tak
In common: Drama · Music
Coyote Ugly
2000 · David McNally
Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives
In common: Drama · Music
Step Up
2006 · Anne Fletcher
Delinquent Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with up-and-coming dancer Nora.
In common: Drama · Music
The Idea of You
2024 · Michael Showalter
40-year-old single mom Solène begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. As they begin a whirlwind romance, it is
In common: Drama · Music
The Piano Teacher
2001 · Michael Haneke
Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.
In common: Drama · Romance
Materialists
2025 · Celine Song
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
In common: Drama · Romance
Disobedience
2018 · Sebastián Lelio
New York photographer Ronit flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. Ronit is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her ch
In common: Drama · Romance
Nine 1/2 Weeks
1986 · Adrian Lyne
An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets involved in an impersonal affair with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relati
In common: Drama · Romance
Emmanuelle
1974 · Just Jaeckin
An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.
In common: Drama · Romance
Newness
2017 · Drake Doremus
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Ultimate Gift
2007 · Michael O. Sajbel
When his wealthy grandfather finally dies, Jason Stevens fully expects to benefit when it comes to the reading of the will. But instead of a sizable inheritance, Jason receives a test, a series of tas
In common: Drama · Romance
Blue Is the Warmest Color
2013 · Abdellatif Kechiche
Adèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks h
In common: Drama · Romance
Romeo + Juliet
1996 · Baz Luhrmann
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 lo
In common: Drama · Romance
Purple Hearts
2022 · Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
In common: Drama · Romance
Five Feet Apart
2019 · Justin Baldoni
Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control — all of which get put to the test when she me
In common: Drama · Romance
Indecent Proposal
1993 · Adrian Lyne
John Gage offers a down-on-his-luck yuppie husband $1 million for the opportunity to spend the night with the man's wife.
In common: Drama · Romance
Sex and Lucía
2001 · Julio Medem
Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.
In common: Drama · Romance
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
2022 · Sophie Hyde
Nancy Stokes, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had good sex. Now that her husband has died, she is determined to take a tour of sexual vistas that until now she has only imagined.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Reader
2008 · Stephen Daldry
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants i
In common: Drama · Romance
The Fault in Our Stars
2014 · Josh Boone
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus W
In common: Drama · Romance
The Bridges of Madison County
1995 · Clint Eastwood
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
In common: Drama · Romance
Slumdog Millionaire
2008 · Danny Boyle
A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
In common: Drama · Romance
Almost Famous
2000 · Cameron Crowe
In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-comin
In common: Drama · Music
Before Sunset
2004 · Richard Linklater
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of
In common: Drama · Romance
Leaving Las Vegas
1995 · Mike Figgis
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-i
In common: Drama · Romance
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
1993 · Lasse Hallström
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger br
In common: Drama · Romance
Waves
2019 · Trey Edward Shults
A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed unde
In common: Drama · Romance
Pink Floyd: The Wall
1982 · Alan Parker
A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
In common: Drama · Music
Little Women
1994 · Gillian Armstrong
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Theory of Everything
2014 · James Marsh
The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jan
In common: Drama · Romance
August Rush
2007 · Kirsten Sheridan
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
In common: Drama · Music
Up in the Air
2009 · Jason Reitman
Corporate downsizing expert Ryan Bingham spends his life in planes, airports, and hotels, but just as he’s about to reach a milestone of ten million frequent flyer miles, he meets a woman who causes h
In common: Drama · Romance
Little Children
2006 · Todd Field
The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.
In common: Drama · Romance
My Name Is Khan
2010 · Karan Johar
Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, has Asperger's syndrome. He marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX wh
In common: Drama · Romance
An Officer and a Gentleman
1982 · Taylor Hackford
Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Fole
In common: Drama · Romance
The Legend of 1900
1998 · Giuseppe Tornatore
Musician Max Tooney goes to sell his prized Conn trumpet to a music shop, where he plays the instrument one last time. The shopkeeper recognises the song as one on a record matrix he found and asks wh
In common: Drama · Music
Damage
1992 · Louis Malle
The life of a respected British politician at the height of his career crumbles when he becomes obsessed with his son's lover.
In common: Drama · Romance
After We Fell
2021 · Castille Landon
Just as Tessa's life begins to become unglued, nothing is what she thought it would be. Not her friends nor her family. The only person that she should be able to rely on is Hardin, who is furious whe
In common: Drama · Romance
Fifty Shades Freed
2018 · James Foley
Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as
In common: Drama · Romance
Titanic
1997 · James Cameron
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi w
In common: Drama · Romance
Our Fault
2025 · Domingo González
Jenna and Lion's wedding brings about the long-awaited reunion between Noah and Nick after their breakup. Nick's inability to forgive Noah stands as an insurmountable barrier. He, heir to his grandfat
In common: Drama · Romance
Cruel Intentions
1999 · Roger Kumble
Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kath
In common: Drama · Romance
Popular Drama series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
The Chosen
2019 · Tyler Thompson
The life of Christ through the eyes of those who encountered him.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
2025 · Park Sang-hyun
In Jeju, a spirited girl and a steadfast boy's island story blossoms into a lifelong tale of setbacks and triumphs — proving love endures across time.
