# Twin films

Twin films are films with the same or similar plots produced and released within a close proximity of time by two different film studios. The phenomenon can result from two or more production companies investing in similar scripts at the same time, resulting in a race to distribute the films to audiences. Some attribute twin films to industrial espionage, the movement of staff between studios, or that the same screenplays are sent to several film studios before being accepted. Another possible explanation is if the films deal with topical issues, such as volcanic eruptions, reality television, terrorist attacks, or significant anniversaries, resulting in multiple discovery of the concept.
While twin films are often big budget films, a mockbuster can be made with a low budget, with similar titles, aesthetics, or theme as blockbuster films. Mockbusters are usually given more limited release and marketing, intending to take advantage of the public interest in the topic driven by the major film.

## Avoiding twin films

Screenwriter Terry Rossio notes that there are always film projects with similar subjects being developed in multiple studios, and that usually only one of them makes it into production in a given period of time, and therefore twin films are better regarded as exceptions to this tendency. For example, the release of the 2015 Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass led to the abandonment of a planned film about Bulger that would have been produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
The 2008 film Who Do You Love?, about American record label Chess Records, had its widespread release delayed until 2010 to avoid competing with Cadillac Records, a higher-budget 2008 film on the same subject.
In one case, for the 1974 film The Towering Inferno, the fear of having competing action thrillers, both set in a burning skyscraper, convinced two Hollywood studios to merge their productions into one (all-star) film.

## Notable examples

Notable examples of twin films are included in this list:
| First film | Release date | Second film | Release date | Similarities |
| Das Mirakel | 1912 | The Miracle | 1912 | Based on play The Miracle (1911). Both films were exhibited with similar titles, causing legal disputes. |
| Ivanhoe | 1913 | Ivanhoe | 1913 | Based on Ivanhoe (1819). |
| Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | 1920 | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | 1920 | Based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) |
| The Three Musketeers | 1921 | Les Trois Mousquetaires | 1921 | Based on The Three Musketeers (1844). |
| The Spanish Dancer | 1923 | Rosita | 1923 | Based on the play Don César de Bazan (1844) and the opera Don César de Bazan (1872). |
| Ingagi | 1930 | Africa Speaks! | 1930 | Both exploitation films about an expedition in the Belgian Congo. |
| Dishonored | 1931 | Mata Hari | 1931 | Both films are about female spies. MGM studios, alarmed by the competition that the Sternberg-Dietrich phenomena posed to star Greta Garbo, responded with the copycat Mata Hari the same year. |
| Topaze | 1933 | Topaze | 1933 | Both are adaptations of the play by Marcel Pagnol released a month apart. |
| Little Man, What Now? | 1933 | Little Man, What Now? | 1934 | Both are adaptations of the novel by Hans Fallada. |
| The Rise of Catherine the Great | 1934 | The Scarlet Empress | 1934 | Both are about Catherine the Great. |
| The Black Cat | 1934 | Maniac | 1934 | Both are loose adaptations of The Black Cat. |
| Crime and Punishment | 1935 | Crime and Punishment | 1935 | Both are based on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. |
| The Emperor's Candlesticks | 1936 | The Emperor's Candlesticks | 1937 | Both are adaptations of The Emperor's Candlesticks (1899) by Baroness Orczy. |
| Jezebel | 1938 | Gone with the Wind | 1939 | William Wyler's Jezebel (1938) was reportedly created for Bette Davis when she failed to win the highly coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Both films were about feisty, independent Southern belles during the American Civil War. |
| Young Mr. Lincoln | 1939 | Abe Lincoln in Illinois | 1940 | Both are about Abraham Lincoln. |
| The Wizard of Oz | 1939 | The Blue Bird | 1940 | Walter Lang's The Blue Bird (1940), adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's 1908 play of the same name, significantly embellishes the original tale and serves as 20th Century Fox's response to MGM's adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum, following MGM's unsuccessful attempt to cast Shirley Temple in the lead role. Both films center on young girls who are discontented with their lives and are magically transported to enchanting new worlds. Notably, they both begin in black and white before transitioning to vibrant Technicolor, representing their respective journeys of self-discovery. |
| Journey into Fear | 1943 | Background to Danger | 1943 | An American becomes the target of Nazi spies in neutral Turkey. Based on novels by Eric Ambler. |
| Rhapsody Rabbit | 1946 | The Cat Concerto | 1947 | Both cartoons center around a piano rendition of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2", and both feature a mouse pestering the pianist. See also Rhapsody Rabbit § Plagiarism dispute. |
| Alice au pays des Merveilles | 1949 | Alice in Wonderland | 1951 | Both are feature-length animated adaptations of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Walt Disney Company would sue the French film's distributors to prevent release of the British version in the U.S., and the case was extensively covered in Time magazine. The company that released the British version accused Disney of trying to exploit their film by releasing its version at virtually the same time. |
| Volcano | 1950 | Stromboli | 1950 | Both are films about a woman who is forced to move to a volcanic island in Italy, where she is ostracized by the locals. Volcano was widely viewed as star Anna Magnani's revenge at not having been cast in Stromboli, as she had been promised by director Roberto Rossellini; this dispute was covered in the 2012 documentary The War of the Volcanoes. |
| Manina, the Girl in the Bikini | 1952 | Woman of the Red Sea | 1953 | Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren in their first main roles as girls in bathing suits in films about deep sea diving. |
| The Daughter of the Regiment | 1953 | Daughter of the Regiment | 1953 | Based on La fille du régiment (1840) by Gaetano Donizetti |
| Sign of the Pagan | 1954 | Attila | 1954 | Both films about Attila and his invasion of the Western Roman Empire; a contemporary review in The New York Times writes, "Attila the Hun, quite ignored by moviemakers up to now, is about to step into the limelight in two new films." |
| Touchez pas au grisbi | 1954 | Rififi | 1955 | Both are films about aging gangsters in Paris. After a successful heist they have to fight against a rival gang. |
| The Plot to Assassinate Hitler | 1955 | Jackboot Mutiny | 1955 | Both are about the 20 July plot of 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler. |
| Anastasia | 1956 | The Story of Anastasia | 1956 | Both follow the life of Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to have been the presumed dead Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, who was the last sovereign of Imperial Russia. |
| The Fly | 1958 | The Wasp Woman | 1959 | Both films are about a human being transforming into a giant insect (a fly and a wasp). |
| Tarzan's Greatest Adventure | 1959 | Tarzan, the Ape Man | 1959 | Both movies are about Tarzan and an adventure that he has. |
| Oscar Wilde | 1960 | The Trials of Oscar Wilde | 1960 | Both are about the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. |
| Portrait of a Mobster | 1961 | Mad Dog Coll | 1961 | Films about Dutch Schultz and Mad Dog Coll. |
| Mutiny on the Bounty | 1962 | H.M.S. Defiant | 1962 | Films about mutinies on British ships in the late 18th century. |
| Cleopatra | 1963 | A Queen for Caesar | 1962 | Films about Cleopatra. |
| Captain Clegg | 1962 | The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh | 1963 | Both films were based on Doctor Syn (1915) by Russell Thorndike. |
| Dr. Strangelove | 1964 | Fail Safe | 1964 | Both deal with the concept of accidental nuclear war, although Dr. Strangelove is satire, while Fail Safe is a drama. |
| Harlow | 1965 | Harlow | 1965 | Both were based on the life story of Jean Harlow. |
| Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines | 1965 | The Great Race | 1965 | Both are slapstick films about a race in the early 1900s, inspired by the success of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). The films were released two weeks apart. |
| The Quiller Memorandum | 1966 | Funeral in Berlin | 1966 | Both are spy films set in contemporary Berlin. |
| You're a Big Boy Now | 1966 | The Graduate | 1967 | Also Benjamin (1968). All are coming-of-age comedy-drama films about a young man being pursued by an older woman. |
| Three Resurrected Drunkards | 1968 | Head | 1968 | Both films feature a boy band that tackle the common anti-war and counter-culture themes of the time whilst utilizing a time-loop and dream-like narrative. |
| Yours, Mine and Ours | 1968 | With Six You Get Eggroll | 1968 | Both movies deal with widowed parents marrying and combining both of their families. |
| Fellini Satyricon | 1969 | Satyricon | 1969 | Both films were based on Petronius's work, Satyricon. |
| Venus in Furs | 1969 | Venus in Furs | 1969 | Both films were based on Venus in Furs (1870) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. |
| Don't Grieve | 1969 | Mon oncle Benjamin | 1969 | Both films were based on Mon oncle Benjamin [fr] (1842) by Claude Tillier. |
| The Thirteen Chairs | 1969 | The Twelve Chairs | 1970 | Also The Twelve Chairs (1971). All are based on the Russian 1928 novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov. |
| Leo the Last | 1970 | The Landlord | 1970 | Both deal with issues of class and race and feature an upper-class man who moves into a lower-class black neighborhood and gets involved with the residents. |
| The Strawberry Statement | 1970 | Getting Straight | 1970 | Also The Revolutionary and R. P. M. (1970). All are dramas about campus revolt. |
| Bloody Mama | 1970 | The Grissom Gang | 1971 | Both based on the life story of Ma Barker. |
| Goya, a Story of Solitude | 1971 | Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment | 1971 | Biographical films about Francisco Goya. |
| Gamera vs. Zigra | 1971 | Godzilla vs. Hedorah | 1971 | Both are kaiju films that deal with pollution. |
| Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song | 1971 | Shaft | 1971 | Both are frequently credited as the earliest examples of the blaxploitation genre. |
| Ludwig | 1973 | Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King | 1972 | Both concern Ludwig II of Bavaria. |
| Godspell | 1973 | Jesus Christ Superstar | 1973 | Both adaptations of 1971 Broadway musicals based on the life of Jesus Christ. |
| A Doll's House | 1973 | A Doll's House | 1973 | Also Nora Helmer [de] (1974). Adaptations of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House (1879). |
| The Gambler | 1974 | California Split | 1974 | Both portray Jewish protagonists addicted to gambling on a downward spiral. |
| Executive Action | 1973 | The Parallax View | 1974 | Paranoid thrillers about political assassinations. |
| Eskimo Nell | 1975 | The True Story of Eskimo Nell | 1975 | Based on The Ballad of Eskimo Nell. |
| Rollerball | 1975 | Death Race 2000 | 1975 | Both are dystopian science fiction action films involving dangerous and, sometimes, fatal sports. |
| Cannonball | 1976 | The Gumball Rally | 1976 | Also The Cannonball Run (1981). All three are about the same illegal cross-country race. |
| Victory at Entebbe | 1976 | Raid on Entebbe | 1977 | Also Operation Thunderbolt (1977). All are based on the real-life Operation Entebbe, in which Israeli hostages from a hijacked airplane were freed on July 4, 1976. |
| Fellini's Casanova | 1976 | Casanova & Co. | 1977 | Two films about Giacomo Casanova. |
| Two-Minute Warning | 1976 | Black Sunday | 1977 | Both action thrillers are about preventing a large-scale terrorist attack at a stadium during a football game. |
| Brink's: The Great Robbery | 1976 | The Brink's Job | 1978 | Both films are based on the Brink's robbery of 1950 in Boston, where almost 3 million dollars was stolen. |
| The Last Remake of Beau Geste | 1977 | March or Die | 1977 | Two films about the French Foreign Legion. |
| Valentino | 1977 | The World's Greatest Lover | 1977 | Two films based on the Hollywood career of Rudolph Valentino. |
| Corvette Summer | 1978 | Stingray | 1978 | Both are action comedies about a Chevrolet Corvette. |
| The Warriors | 1979 | The Wanderers | 1979 | Both are about gang wars between New York teenage street gangs of various ethnicities. |
| Nosferatu the Vampyre | 1979 | Dracula | 1979 | Also Love at First Bite (1979). All are based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. |
| Concorde Affaire '79 | 1979 | The Concorde... Airport '79 | 1979 | Both are disaster films that involve the Concorde plane. |
| The Amityville Horror | 1979 | The Shining | 1980 | Both are supernatural horror films about a family moving into a building where a previous family of tenants has been murdered, in which the father gets possessed by the previous murderer, ultimately attacking his family with an axe. |
| Border Cop | 1979 | Borderline | 1980 | Also The Border (1982); all involve border patrol or immigration enforcement agents who have dangerous encounters with criminals. |
| Sphinx | 1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | 1981 | Adventure films about archaeologists in Egypt. John Rhys-Davies and Vic Tablian have roles in both films. |
| The Last Chase | 1981 | Firebird 2015 AD | 1981 | Both films which take place in a future where the American government has banned private automobiles. |
| Roar | 1981 | Savage Harvest | 1981 | Both films feature American families being attacked by lions in Africa. |
| The Howling | 1981 | Wolfen | 1981 | Also An American Werewolf in London (1981); all either involve werewolves or supernatural wolf-like creatures. |
| Porky's | 1981 | The Last American Virgin | 1982 | Also Screwballs and Losin' It (both 1983); all are sex comedies depicting a group of young male friends trying to lose their respective virginities or perform another sexually related mission. |
| The Killing of Angel Street | 1981 | Heatwave | 1982 | Both were loosely based on the disappearance of Australian anti-development activist Juanita Nielsen. |
| Reds | 1981 | Red Bells | 1982 | Also Red Bells II (1983). Films about journalist John Reed (1887–1920). |
| Some Kind of Hero | 1982 | First Blood | 1982 | Also Ruckus (1980). Films feature a Vietnam veteran who returns home who then has trouble adjusting to civilian life. |
| The Pirate Movie | 1982 | The Pirates of Penzance | 1983 | Both are adaptations of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. |
| Carmen | 1983 | Carmen | 1984 | Also First Name: Carmen (1983). All are inspired by Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. |
| Octopussy | 1983 | Never Say Never Again | 1983 | Both films feature slightly older-than-usual versions of the fictional super-spy, James Bond, as played by actors who had played him in multiple past Bond films (Roger Moore and Sean Connery respectively). |
| Wild Style | 1983 | Beat Street | 1984 | Both are well-received old-school hip hop films, focusing on all four pillars of hip hop culture. See also 1983 documentary, Style Wars, focusing on graffiti and to a lesser extent breakdancing; 1984 film Breakin' focused largely on breakdancing; 1985's Krush Groove, a fictionalized retelling of the founding of Def Jam, which focused more on rap music. Many overlapping performers appear in the films, such as the Rock Steady Crew in Wild Style, Style Wars, and Beat Street. |
| The Day After | 1983 | Threads | 1984 | Also Testament (1983) and One Night Stand (1984); all are about the run-up and aftermath of a nuclear attack. |
| Country | 1984 | The River | 1984 | Also Places in the Heart (1984); all are about the difficulties faced by family farms. |
| Dreamscape | 1984 | A Nightmare On Elm Street | 1984 | Both are about people entering the dreams of others and being able to kill them in real life by killing them in their dreams. |
| Gremlins | 1984 | Ghoulies | 1985 | Also Critters (1986). All involve small destructive, evil creatures. |
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | 1984 | King Solomon's Mines | 1985 | Also Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986), the sequel to the latter. All three are action adventure films where an archaeologist-type figure goes on a quest for a mystical place or item, encountering natives along the way. |
| Rambo: First Blood Part II | 1985 | Commando | 1985 | Also Missing in Action (1984). All are one-man army action films. |
| The Return of the Living Dead | 1985 | Day of the Dead | 1985 | Both are zombie movies, released almost simultaneously, and arising from the collaboration between John Russo and George A. Romero on Night of the Living Dead. |
| Wills & Burke | 1985 | Burke & Wills | 1985 | Both Australian films are about the Burke and Wills expedition. The films were released within a week of each other. |
| Back to the Future | 1985 | Peggy Sue Got Married | 1986 | Both feature protagonists who go back in time and meet high school versions of their family members, played by the same actors. |
| Fright Night | 1985 | Vamp | 1986 | Also The Lost Boys and Near Dark (1987); all are vampire films involving teenage characters. |
| Into the Night | 1985 | After Hours | 1985 | Also Something Wild (1986); all are comedies about men whose encounter with a mysterious woman leads them to trouble. |
| Top Gun | 1986 | Iron Eagle | 1986 | Both are films about fighter pilots. |
| GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords | 1986 | The Transformers: The Movie | 1986 | Both are animated feature films derived from TV cartoons based on toy lines about transforming robots. |
| Big Trouble in Little China | 1986 | The Golden Child | 1986 | Both are themed around Eastern mythology, and star James Hong. |
| The Great Mouse Detective | 1986 | An American Tail | 1986 | Both are animated feature films about a group of mice. |
| The Vindicator | 1986 | RoboCop | 1987 | Both are about an innocent man who is left mutilated and near-dead by villains, is reconstructed into a cyborg by a special-weapons company, and seeks revenge on the people responsible for his fate. |
| Platoon | 1986 | Full Metal Jacket | 1987 | Also Hamburger Hill (1987) and 84C MoPic (1989). All are bleak, violent and unglamorized depictions of the Vietnam War. |
| Gothic | 1986 | Haunted Summer | 1988 | Also Rowing with the Wind (1988). All are set in 1816 when Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley and John William Polidori spend a summer in the isolated Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva. |
| Link | 1986 | Monkey Shines | 1988 | Both are horror films with primates as the antagonist. |
| The Secret of My Succe$s | 1987 | Working Girl | 1988 | Both are about people starting new lower-level jobs in New York City, pretending to be executives, coming up with great ideas regarding takeovers, and getting the girl/guy that was "out of their league". |
| Like Father, Like Son | 1987 | Big | 1988 | Also Vice Versa, 18 Again!, 14 Going on 30 (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989); all portray boys who transform into, or who switch bodies with, adult men. |
| Buster | 1988 | Prisoner of Rio | 1988 | The fate of British train robbers from 1963. |
| Dangerous Liaisons | 1988 | Valmont | 1989 | Both are adaptations of the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. |
| Oliver & Company | 1988 | All Dogs Go to Heaven | 1989 | Both are animated feature films about dogs with a human partner. |
| K-9 | 1989 | Turner & Hooch | 1989 | Both are buddy cop-dog films about a police officer who gets a dog for a partner. |
| DeepStar Six | 1989 | Leviathan | 1989 | Also The Abyss, The Evil Below, Lords of the Deep (1989) and The Rift (1990); all are underwater thrillers involving explorers discovering strange new (and in most of the movies hostile) creatures in the ocean. |
| Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming | 1989 | Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming | 1990 | Both are biopics of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. |
| The Forbidden Dance | 1990 | Lambada | 1990 | Both are films that center around the dance the Lambada. |
| Manta, Manta | 1991 | Manta – Der Film [de] | 1991 | Both are based on Manta jokes. |
| Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | 1991 | Robin Hood | 1991 | Both are based on the legend of Robin Hood. |
| The Super | 1991 | Life Stinks | 1991 | Both are about ruthless upper-class white men who are forced to live in an urban slum. |
| Mobsters | 1991 | Bugsy | 1991 | Both crime films are about Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello. Luciano also appears in Billy Bathgate (1991). |
| December Bride | 1991 | The Playboys | 1992 | Both films tell of a young Irish woman in a small rural community who decides to have a child out of wedlock. |
| The Hard Way | 1991 | Into the Sun | 1992 | Both films are about a movie star going through dangerous adventures while gathering material for a role. |
| American Me | 1992 | Blood In Blood Out | 1993 | Both films depict gang violence in the Mexican-American community in California. At one point, American Me star and director Edward James Olmos was offered to star in and direct Blood In Blood Out, but passed on the film due to creative differences. Floyd Mutrux is credited as a co-writer on both films. |
| 1492: Conquest of Paradise | 1992 | Christopher Columbus: The Discovery | 1992 | Also Carry on Columbus (1992). All three are about Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the Americas in 1492. |
| Fear of a Black Hat | 1993 | CB4 | 1993 | Both parody hip hop, with a particular focus on rap group N.W.A; Fear of a Black Hat is a mockumentary. Both films feature actors Deezer D, Lance Crouther, and LaVerne Anderson; Kimberly Hardin cast both pictures. |
| Mad Dog and Glory | 1993 | Indecent Proposal | 1993 | Also Honeymoon in Vegas (1992). All three films involve a man buying a woman who is not a prostitute for a short period of time and a large amount of money. |
| Carnosaur | 1993 | Jurassic Park | 1993 | Both are action adventure films involving the genetic recreation of dinosaurs or prehistoric animals. Both are also based on books. |
| Groundhog Day | 1993 | 12:01 | 1993 | Both are about an individual stuck in a 24-hour time loop where the protagonist wakes every morning on the same day and experiences the events of that day over and over until they discover how to break the cycle. |
| Hard Target | 1993 | Surviving the Game | 1994 | Both are modern-day action-adventure thrillers that are heavily inspired by The Most Dangerous Game. |
| Tombstone | 1993 | Wyatt Earp | 1994 | Both are Wyatt Earp biopics. |
| Rookie of the Year | 1993 | Little Big League | 1994 | Both are films in which a 12-year-old boy becomes involved in Major League Baseball. |
| Undercover Blues | 1993 | True Lies | 1994 | Both films are action comedies about secret agents and their family lives. |
| Kalifornia | 1993 | Natural Born Killers | 1994 | Also 1993 mini-series Murder in the Heartland. All are road movies about a couple engaging in multi-state killing sprees, and all are directly or loosely based on real murderer Charles Starkweather. Both films have Juliette Lewis as a main character. |
| Three of Hearts | 1993 | Threesome | 1994 | Both films involve a love triangle between a heterosexual, a homosexual and a bisexual. Each film also stars one of the Baldwin brothers and a series-regular actress from the television show Twin Peaks. |
| The Beverly Hillbillies | 1993 | Addams Family Values | 1993 | Both films are adaptations of 1960s American television sitcoms, centering on eccentric families struggling to fit into conventional society while humorously exposing its flaws. The Beverly Hillbillies follows a rural family that strikes oil and moves to Beverly Hills, where their simple ways clash with high society. Addams Family Values continues the story of the macabre Addams clan, who face suburban norms head-on, especially through Wednesday’s rebellious antics at summer camp. Both films feature a subplot where a naïve, wealthy bachelor—Jed Clampett and Uncle Fester—is targeted by a scheming woman after his fortune. |
| The Elsa Santos Castillo Story: The Chop Chop Lady | 1994 | Elsa Castillo Story ... Ang Katotohanan | 1994 | Both films purport to tell the true story of the 1989 Elsa S. Castillo murder case in the Philippines. |
| Terminal Velocity | 1994 | Drop Zone | 1994 | Also Freefall (1994). All are action films that involve skydiving. |
| Time Chasers | 1994 | Timecop | 1994 | Both are science fiction films with the themes of time traveling that involved the protagonist trying to prevent the course of time being altered for the antagonists' personal gain. |
| The Air Up There | 1994 | The Scout | 1994 | Both films are about a desperate American scout who thinks he found an extraordinary talent in an unlikely foreign locale, but bringing the player to stardom has unthought-of difficulties and the scout learns life lessons from the player he is supposed to be developing. |
| Camp Nowhere | 1994 | Heavyweights | 1995 | Both films take place at summer camp and include a preteen protagonist who is initially reluctant to go. (Both films were also released by Disney's Buena Vista Pictures.) |
| The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | 1994 | To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar | 1995 | Both have the plot of drag queens going on a road trip across their country (in one case Australia, in the other, the United States), in a journey of self-discovery. Both have eight-word-titles. |
| Street Fighter | 1994 | Mortal Kombat | 1995 | Also Double Dragon (1994). All are martial arts action adventure films based on fighting video game franchises. |
| Braveheart | 1995 | Rob Roy | 1995 | Also The Bruce (1996); all are adventure/war biopics set in Scotland. |
| Gordy | 1994 | Babe | 1995 | Both are family films starring piglets. |
| The Flor Contemplacion Story | 1995 | Bagong Bayani | 1995 | Both films depict the trial and execution of Flor Contemplacion, an Overseas Filipino Worker in Singapore. |
| A Kid in King Arthur's Court | 1995 | Kids of the Round Table | 1995 | Both involve a modern American boy who encounters characters from Arthurian legend, leading the boy to experience adventure and an increase in self-confidence. |
| Showgirls | 1995 | Striptease | 1996 | Also Stripteaser (1996). All three are erotic drama films featuring a lead character involved in the stripper profession. |
| GoldenEye | 1995 | Mission: Impossible | 1996 | Both are spy films based on long running franchises and feature plots wherein the protagonist's close friend fakes his death and is revealed to be a traitor. |
| Powder | 1995 | Phenomenon | 1996 | Both tell the story of a man with telepathic powers that make him an outcast in a small town. (Both films were also released by Disney's Buena Vista Pictures.) |
| The Craft | 1996 | Little Witches | 1996 | Both are films about young teenage outcasts becoming witches. |
| Emma | 1996 | Emma | 1996 | Also Clueless (1995). All are based on the Jane Austen novel Emma, however Clueless takes place in modern-day Beverly Hills. |
| Independence Day | 1996 | Mars Attacks! | 1996 | Both are alien invasion films released the same year. However, one is a comedy while the other is an action thriller. |
| Twister | 1996 | Tornado! | 1996 | Both chronicle the lives of storm chasers in their line of work. |
| Executive Decision | 1996 | Air Force One | 1997 | Both are films about terrorists hijacking a plane and a rescue team saving the passengers and defeating the terrorists. Con Air (1997) also has a similar concept, though involving convicts. |
| The Arrival | 1996 | Contact | 1997 | Both are science fiction thriller films in which the main character is a radio astronomer that takes part in a conspiracy involving making first contact with an alien race. |
| Titanic | 1996 | Titanic | 1997 | Both are epic romantic disaster films incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. |
| Dante's Peak | 1997 | Volcano | 1997 | Also Volcano: Fire on the Mountain (1997). All three are disaster films centered around volcanic eruptions. |
| The Jackal | 1997 | The Assignment | 1997 | Both are action thrillers dealing with assassins called Jackal; The Assignment's is based on Venezuelan terrorist operative Carlos the Jackal. |
| Kundun | 1997 | Seven Years in Tibet | 1997 | Both are fact-based dramas set in mid-20th century Tibet, with the 14th Dalai Lama as a main character. |
| Murder at 1600 | 1997 | Absolute Power | 1997 | Both films center around a Washington, D.C. murder investigation involving the President/at the White House. |
| The House of Yes | 1997 | The Myth of Fingerprints | 1997 | Also The Ice Storm. All three films center around dysfunctional families in the Northeastern United States gathering for Thanksgiving. |
| FairyTale: A True Story | 1997 | Photographing Fairies | 1997 | Both films are based on the same story about two supposedly photographed fairies by two girls. Both films (as in life) feature Arthur Conan Doyle. |
| Prefontaine | 1997 | Without Limits | 1998 | Both are biographical sports films about distance runner Steve Prefontaine. |
| Jack Frost | 1997 | Jack Frost | 1998 | Both films have the same title and each is about a man killed in a vehicle crash who is subsequently reanimated as a living snowman. They differ in that the 1997 movie is a slasher film, while the 1998 film is family-friendly. |
| I Know What You Did Last Summer | 1997 | Urban Legend | 1998 | Both are slasher films about urban legends and inspired by the success of Scream (1996). (Both films are also produced by Neal H. Moritz). |
| Antz | 1998 | A Bug's Life | 1998 | Both are computer-animated films about insects, starring a non-conformist ant who falls in love with an ant princess, leaves the mound, and eventually returns and is hailed as a hero. |
| Deep Impact | 1998 | Armageddon | 1998 | Also Doomsday Rock (1997), Asteroid (1997), Judgment Day (1998), and Tycus (1998). All are global catastrophic risk disaster films centered around an impending impact event that threatens to end most or all life on Earth. |
| Saving Private Ryan | 1998 | The Thin Red Line | 1998 | Also Life Is Beautiful (1997). All are dramas about, or involving, World War II. |
| Sliding Doors | 1998 | Run Lola Run | 1998 | Both films tell the same story of a woman multiple times, changing a minor detail at the beginning and depicting how that change drastically affects the outcome. |
| Dead Man on Campus | 1998 | The Curve | 1998 | Both films involve college students attempting to utilize pass by catastrophe. |
| 54 | 1998 | Last Days of Disco | 1998 | Both films are set again the backdrop of the waning disco era of the late 1970s. |
| The Truman Show | 1998 | EDtv | 1999 | Also Pleasantville (1998). All are films in which a person or a large group of people's lives are broadcast on TV. |
| Tale of the Mummy | 1998 | The Mummy | 1999 | Also Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy (1997). All three are about mummies coming back to life and killing people. |
| Dark City | 1998 | The Matrix | 1999 | Also The Thirteenth Floor and eXistenZ (1999); all are science fiction films involving the theme of whether the world is real or an illusion. All except for Dark City involve virtual reality in a computer system. |
| Paulie | 1998 | The Real Macaw | 1998 | Both are children's adventure films featuring a parrot. |
| Anywhere But Here | 1999 | Tumbleweeds | 1999 | Both films concern a mother-daughter pair who drive across the country to settle in California. |
| Entrapment | 1999 | The Thomas Crown Affair | 1999 | Both are caper films focused on the relationship between an attractive female insurance investigator and a male thief who steals an expensive painting by a famous artist. (Coincidentally, the male lead in both films is also played by an actor who has portrayed James Bond.) |
| The Sixth Sense | 1999 | Stir of Echoes | 1999 | Both are supernatural horror films with a man and his relatives, experiencing a series of frightening visions and having the ability to interact with ghosts. |
| End of Days | 1999 | Stigmata | 1999 | Also Lost Souls (2000); all are supernatural religious horror films involving the Catholic Church. Both End of Days and Stigmata star Gabriel Byrne as a main character. Both End of Days and Lost Souls involve the theme of Satan taking possession of a man's body. |
| The Haunting | 1999 | House on Haunted Hill | 1999 | Also The House That Screamed (2000). All are horror films in which people are trapped in a haunted house. Both The Haunting and House on Haunted Hill are based on media from 1959. The two also have strangers lured into the house under false pretenses. |
| 10 Things I Hate About You | 1999 | Hamlet | 2000 | Also O (2001). All are modern-day adaptations of William Shakespeare plays, featuring Julia Stiles as the female lead. |
| The Legend of the Titanic | 1999 | Titanic: The Legend Goes On | 2000 | Both are animated films about the sinking of RMS Titanic. |
| Bicentennial Man | 1999 | A.I. Artificial Intelligence | 2001 | Both are science fiction films dealing with the theme of humanoid robots seeking to experience emotion and be human. Both are also adapted from works of prominent sci-fi authors; Isaac Asimov and Brian Aldiss respectively. |
| Lovers Lane | 1999 | Valentine | 2001 | Both are holiday horror movies set on Valentine's Day revolving around a serial killer exacting revenge on young adults 13 years later. |
| Padre Pio: Miracle Man | 2000 | Padre Pio: Between Heaven and Earth | 2000 | Both films are about Padre Pio. |
| The Road to El Dorado | 2000 | The Emperor's New Groove | 2000 | Both are animated buddy comedy films set in what is now Latin America. |
| Bring It On | 2000 | Sugar & Spice | 2001 | Both films are comedies about high school cheerleading squads. Sugar & Spice star Marley Shelton was the second choice to play Bring It On character Torrance Shipman, prior to Kirsten Dunst being cast in the role, after previously turning it down. Also, according to Bring It On star Gabrielle Union, she and many of her Bring It On co-stars also auditioned for Sugar & Spice. |
| Scary Movie | 2000 | Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth | 2000 | Both are horror movie spoofs featuring a killer wearing a Ghostface mask; Scary Movie additionally had the working title Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween. |
| Mission to Mars | 2000 | Red Planet | 2000 | Also Blood Red Planet (2000) and Ghosts of Mars (2001). All are science fiction adventure films about expeditions to Mars. However, Ghosts of Mars is a horror film. |
| Wonder Boys | 2000 | Finding Forrester | 2000 | Both are films involving a writer and his friendship with a student. |
| The Score | 2001 | Heist | 2001 | Both are crime thriller films involving a major robbery. |
| Autumn In New York | 2000 | Sweet November | 2001 | Both films center on free-spirited young women who are diagnosed with terminal illnesses set against the fall backdrop. |
| Joe Dirt | 2001 | Run Ronnie Run! | 2002 | Both are crude humor stories about lovable-ish rednecks. There are jokes that are nearly identical in each movie. However, Run Ronnie Run! is based on a Mr. Show with Bob and David character that first appeared in 1995. |
| Stealing Harvard | 2002 | Orange County | 2002 | Both are comedy films about someone resorting to drastic measures in order to obtain acceptance to, or tuition for, a prestigious college. |
| Liberty Stands Still | 2002 | Phone Booth | 2002 | Both movies revolve around people who answer a ringing phone in a public place and are held hostage there by a sniper who has an agenda. |
| The Legend of Bhagat Singh | 2002 | 23rd March 1931: Shaheed | 2002 | Both movies are about Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary who fought for Indian independence |
| Freddy vs. Jason | 2003 | Alien vs. Predator | 2004 | Both feature horror icons from the 1980s fighting against each other, while humans end up in the crossfire. |
| Biker Boyz | 2003 | Torque | 2004 | Both are action films about motorcycle gangs and street racing. |
| Finding Nemo | 2003 | Shark Tale | 2004 | Both are computer-animated films set underwater. |
| Underworld | 2003 | Van Helsing | 2004 | Both films depict a war between vampires and werewolves. Kate Beckinsale played the female lead in both films. |
| Beautiful Boxer | 2003 | Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior | 2003 | Both are Thai films centering on Muay Thai |
| Chasing Liberty | 2004 | First Daughter | 2004 | Both are romantic comedy films about the rebellious daughter of the President of the United States. |
| The Cave | 2005 | The Descent | 2005 | Also The Cavern (2005). All three are horror films in which people encounter deadly creatures in a cave system. |
| Red Eye | 2005 | Flightplan | 2005 | Both are thriller films set on airplanes. |
| War of the Worlds | 2005 | H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds | 2005 | Also War of the Worlds (2005). All three are adaptations of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. |
| Sky High | 2005 | Zoom | 2006 | Both are about kids training to become superheroes. |
| Madagascar | 2005 | The Wild | 2006 | Both are computer-animated films involving similar animal characters from New York's Central Park Zoo being introduced to the wild. See The Wild#Comparisons to Madagascar. |
| Capote | 2005 | Infamous | 2006 | Both are drama films about Truman Capote and the writing of In Cold Blood. The confluence of the two films led to an incident in 2003 when Infamous writer-director Douglas McGrath called producer Bingham Ray to announce that his script had been finished, and Ray responded "I know, I've got it on my desk!" before realizing that he actually had the screenplay to Capote. |
| The Dark | 2005 | Silent Hill | 2006 | Both are horror films where a woman enters a strange otherworld in search of her missing daughter. Both also star Sean Bean in a small role, have similar style final scenes, and have been adapted from other media. |
| Asylum | 2005 | Notes on a Scandal | 2006 | Both are British dramas about women of similar age who have an illicit affair at a public institution (respectively a mental asylum and a school) while being observed and manipulated by an older person. Both films were adapted from novels by screenwriter Patrick Marber, who has himself commented on the similarity between them. |
| Beowulf & Grendel | 2005 | Beowulf | 2007 | Also Grendel (2007). All three are fantasy adventure films based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf. |
| The Zodiac | 2005 | Zodiac | 2007 | Also Curse of the Zodiac (2007); All are films based on the story of the Zodiac Killer. |
| Zzyzx | 2006 | Zyzzyx Road | 2006 | Both are thrillers about people trying to hide a dead body on Zzyzx Road in California. |
| United 93 | 2006 | Flight 93 | 2006 | Both are dramas about United Airlines Flight 93. |
| The Prestige | 2006 | The Illusionist | 2006 | Both are films about 19th-century magicians. |
| Over the Hedge | 2006 | Open Season | 2006 | Both are computer-animated films about wild animals who are at war with humans. |
| Happy Feet | 2006 | Surf's Up | 2007 | Both are computer-animated comedy films about penguins. |
| The Zombie Diaries | 2006 | Diary of the Dead | 2007 | Both are found footage horror films surrounding an outbreak of zombies, along with similar titles. |
| An American Crime | 2007 | The Girl Next Door | 2007 | Both are based on the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens. |
| Knocked Up | 2007 | Juno | 2007 | Also Waitress (2007). All feature a young female protagonist facing an unexpected pregnancy. |
| Control | 2007 | What We Do Is Secret | 2007 | Both films are biopics centered on (post-)punk frontmen who died by suicide in their early 20s in 1980. |
| This Christmas | 2007 | Nothing Like the Holidays | 2008 | Both films revolve large families gathering for the Christmas holiday. |
| 27 Dresses | 2008 | Made of Honor | 2008 | Both films are romantic comedies centering on weddings and loyal friends taking part as bridesmaids. Both films also have actors that starred in the television series Grey's Anatomy at the time in the lead roles, Katherine Heigl and Patrick Dempsey respectively. Kevin McKidd of Grey's Anatomy also co-starred in Made of Honor prior to appearing in the series later in the film's release year. |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | 2008 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | 2008 | Both are loose adaptations of Jules Verne's novel of the same name. |
| Coco Chanel | 2008 | Coco Before Chanel | 2009 | Also Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009). All are related to French fashion designer Coco Chanel. |
| Eagle Eye | 2008 | Echelon Conspiracy | 2009 | Both center around a government AI supercomputer that is tasked with protecting the US through ubiquitous surveillance and endless access to nearly all technology, which becomes too autonomous and powerful. |
| Beast Stalker | 2008 | Connected | 2008 | Both are crime dramas containing the theme of kidnapping involving a single mother, her child and a police officer - both also star Nick Cheung. |
| Who Do You Love? | 2008 | Cadillac Records | 2008 | Both films delves into the musical landscape from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, highlighting the life of Leonard Chess, a prominent record company executive based in Chicago, along with several musicians who recorded for Chess Records. |
| Repo! The Genetic Opera | 2008 | Repo Men | 2010 | Set in a dystopian future, both films are about one or more corporate-employed "repo men" who fatally repossess artificial organs when patients default on their payments. |
| Observe and Report | 2009 | Paul Blart: Mall Cop | 2009 | Both are comedy films about an overweight mall cop. |
| Gamer | 2009 | Surrogates | 2009 | Also Sleep Dealer (2008) and Avatar (2009); all are science fiction films in which people control physical remotely-operated bodies. |
| Avatar | 2009 | District 9 | 2009 | Both films portray aliens abused by humans, the protagonist changing sides, turning against the military-minded antagonist and eventually becoming an alien. |
| Knowing | 2009 | 2012 | 2009 | Both are science fiction disaster films about the end of the world. |
| The Road | 2009 | The Book of Eli | 2010 | Also Hell (2011). All three films are set in a post-apocalyptic world, where the main characters try to survive by travelling. |
| Armored | 2009 | Takers | 2010 | Both are stylized, action-crime robbery thrillers. Matt Dillon stars in both films. |
| Dark Moon Rising | 2009 | The Wolfman | 2010 | Both show a werewolf trying to stop his father,who is also a werewolf. |
| The A-Team | 2010 | The Losers | 2010 | Both are fast-paced action films about dishonored military operatives seeking redemption and revenge after being betrayed on a secret mission. In addition, both are based on pre-existing series from other mediums (one is based on a television show and the other a comic book). |
| Kick-Ass | 2010 | Super | 2010 | Both feature characters who possess no super abilities/powers who embark on vigilante justice under the disguise of homemade costumes and alter egos. Each confronts the difficulties of fighting evil while lacking special abilities, and both are joined, later in their stories, by characters who share similar vigilante motivations. |
| Despicable Me | 2010 | Megamind | 2010 | Also Wreck-It Ralph (2012). All three are computer-animated films featuring a stereotypical villain as the protagonist. |
| Ip Man 2 | 2010 | The Legend Is Born: Ip Man | 2010 | Both are Hong Kong films depicting the life of Ip Man. Sammo Hung stars in both films. |
| Skyline | 2010 | Battle: Los Angeles | 2011 | Both are alien invasion movies that primarily take place in Los Angeles. Sony Pictures, the studio of Battle, initiated legal action against the directors and special effects gurus of Skyline for allegedly ripping off ideas and equipment for their similar film. Sony later dismissed their arbitration, stating they were satisfied their own special effects were not used in Skyline. |
| Centurion | 2010 | The Eagle | 2011 | Both are historical action films about the disappearance of the Roman Empire's Ninth Legion. |
| The Bounty Hunter | 2010 | One for the Money | 2012 | Both are films about a bounty hunter and going after a former love interest. |
| No Strings Attached | 2011 | Friends with Benefits | 2011 | Both are romantic comedies about a pair of friends who have a casual, non-romantic sexual relationship and eventually fall in love. No Strings Attached had the working title Friends with Benefits, but had to be renamed due to a conflict with the other film. |
| Yann Samuell's War of the Buttons | 2011 | Christophe Barratier's War of the Buttons | 2011 | Both are French film adaptations of the 1912 novel War of the Buttons, released a week apart from one another, though the first was set in the Algerian War while the second was set in World War II. |
| The Raid | 2011 | Dredd | 2012 | Both films deal with a law enforcement officer infiltrating a tall residential building in pursuit of a crime lord, wherein the crime lord attempts to turn the residents against the officer. |
| Extraterrestrial | 2011 | Seeking a Friend for the End of the World | 2012 | Also 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011) and Melancholia (2011). All are apocalyptic science fiction films. |
| Quartet | 2012 | A Late Quartet | 2012 | Both are about the members of a classical music quartet facing old age. |
| The Girl | 2012 | Hitchcock | 2012 | Both are Alfred Hitchcock biopics. |
| Mirror Mirror | 2012 | Snow White and the Huntsman | 2012 | Both are loose adaptations of the fairy tale Snow White. Also the Spanish 2012 film Blancanieves adapts Snow White, using black-and-white silent cinematography like the 2012 French film The Artist. |
| Zero Dark Thirty | 2012 | Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden | 2012 | Both films are about the assassination of Osama bin Laden. |
| Upside Down | 2012 | Patema Inverted | 2013 | Both are a romance between characters of twin worlds, each with gravity opposite to the other. |
| The Other Son | 2012 | Like Father, Like Son | 2013 | Both films revolve around two young men who were switched at birth and raised by families from contrasting socioeconomic strata. |
| Witchslayer Gretl | 2012 | Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters | 2013 | Also Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft (2013). All three are dark fantasy films portraying Hansel and Gretel in an edgier light. |
| A Hijacking | 2012 | Captain Phillips | 2013 | Both are about a pirate attack on a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia. |
| Ip Man: The Final Fight | 2013 | The Grandmaster | 2013 | Both are Hong Kong produced martial arts drama films about the life of Ip Man, produced outside the Ip Man film series. |
| Jobs | 2013 | Steve Jobs | 2015 | Both are Steve Jobs biopics. |
| Olympus Has Fallen | 2013 | White House Down | 2013 | Both are action films about terrorist attacks on the White House. |
| Oblivion | 2013 | After Earth | 2013 | Both films include a protagonist who must fight for survival on a post-apocalyptic Earth. |
| This Is the End | 2013 | The World's End | 2013 | Also Rapture-Palooza (2013); all are apocalyptic comedy films. Both This Is the End and Rapture-Palooza star Craig Robinson as a main character. |
| The Double | 2013 | Enemy | 2013 | Both are about a man who finds his physical doppelgänger in a seemingly totalitarian state. |
| The Machine | 2013 | Automata | 2014 | Also Her (2013), Ex Machina (2014), Transcendence (2014), Chappie (2015), and Uncanny (2015). All are science fiction films involving robots and/or artificial intelligence. |
| The Starving Games | 2013 | The Hungover Games | 2014 | Both are parody films that are mainly spoofs of The Hunger Games, along with other popular movies and TV shows of the time. |
| Yves Saint Laurent | 2014 | Saint Laurent | 2014 | Both are Yves Saint Laurent biopics. |
| Hercules | 2014 | The Legend of Hercules | 2014 | Also Hercules Reborn (2014). All are about Hercules. |
| The Equalizer | 2014 | John Wick | 2014 | Both films involve a highly trained protagonist who seeks vengeance through killing. |
| Life After Beth | 2014 | Burying the Ex | 2014 | Also Warm Bodies (2013). All three are romantic comedies involving zombies. |
| This Is Where I Leave You | 2014 | August: Osage County | 2014 | Both movies involve dysfunctional families reuniting after the death of the patriarch. |
| Unfriended | 2014 | Friend Request | 2016 | Both are horror films with plots centered around social media. |
| Labyrinth of Lies | 2014 | The People vs. Fritz Bauer | 2015 | Also Die Akte General [de] (2016). All are films depicting the effort which led to the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials by a group of prosecutors headed by Fritz Bauer. |
| Moonwalkers | 2015 | Operation Avalanche | 2016 | Both are films based on Moon landing conspiracy theories. |
| The Beauty Inside | 2015 | Every Day | 2018 | Both are a romance between a woman and a spirit who wakes up every day in a different body. |
| Marguerite | 2015 | Florence Foster Jenkins | 2016 | Both films are based on the life of Florence Foster Jenkins. |
| The Martian | 2015 | Approaching the Unknown | 2016 | Also Forsaken (2018). Both are about a man who is stranded in space on a mission to Mars and has to figure out a way to survive. |
| Spectre | 2015 | Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation | 2015 | Both films feature the protagonists chasing after secret criminal organisations through Austria, Morocco and London while their intelligence agencies are shutting down. Paramount had to advance the release date of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation to avoid conflicting with Spectre. |
| Coming Through the Rye | 2015 | Rebel in the Rye | 2017 | Both are films about J. D. Salinger. |
| Other People | 2016 | The Hollars | 2016 | Both are about a male writer living in New York City who returns to his hometown for his mother dying of cancer. |
| Southside with You | 2016 | Barry | 2016 | Both are films about a young Barack Obama, as well as a love interest. |
| Christine | 2016 | Kate Plays Christine | 2016 | Both are films about Christine Chubbuck, though Kate Plays Christine is a documentary about the acting process. |
| Patriots Day | 2016 | Stronger | 2017 | Both films revolve around the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath. |
| Captain Fantastic | 2016 | The Glass Castle | 2017 | Both are about a large family who lives secluded from the civilized world and deal with its moral ramifications. |
| Anthropoid | 2016 | The Man with the Iron Heart | 2017 | Both films are about Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. |
| Storks | 2016 | The Boss Baby | 2017 | Both films are animated and focus on fictional worlds where babies come from. |
| The Jungle Book | 2016 | Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle | 2018 | Both are live-action, CGI-heavy adaptations of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, though the 2016 film is a remake of the 1967 animated musical film. |
| Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | 2016 | Captain America: Civil War | 2016 | Both films show the world's two greatest heroes being manipulated by a villain to fight each other. |
| Earthquake | 2016 | Spitak | 2018 | Both films are about the 1988 Armenian earthquake. |
| Churchill | 2017 | Darkest Hour | 2017 | Both are films about Winston Churchill. Also, the TV film Churchill's Secret (2016) is about Winston Churchill. |
| Dunkirk | 2017 | Darkest Hour | 2017 | Both films prominently feature the planning of the evacuation of Dunkirk. |
| The Age of Pioneers | 2017 | Salyut 7 | 2017 | Both Russian films are based on facts and feature Soviet cosmonauts. |
| Daddy's Home 2 | 2017 | Bad Moms Christmas | 2017 | Both sequels revolve around parents whose own parents visit for the holidays. |
| Goodbye Christopher Robin | 2017 | Christopher Robin | 2018 | The former is a biopic of author A. A. Milne, focusing on his relationship with his son Christopher Robin, whose childhood inspired the world of Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh. The latter is a fantasy drama about the adult life of the Pooh character Christopher Robin in a continuation of the Disney films based on Milne's books. |
| Crowhurst | 2017 | The Mercy | 2018 | Both films are about Donald Crowhurst's ill-fated entry in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a non-stop round-the-world sailing competition. Uniquely, these films not only have an identical subject, but were also distributed by the same studio, namely StudioCanal: according to the head of StudioCanal UK, Danny Perkins, the company bought the low-budget production Crowhurst "so we could control it". |
| Little Women | 2017 | Little Women | 2019 | Also Little Women (2018 film). Both are adaptations of the 2-part novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott which released around Christmas. However the 2018 film takes place in modern-day. |
| Den of Thieves | 2018 | King of Thieves | 2018 | Both are heist thriler featuring group. |
| 303 Squadron | 2018 | Hurricane: 303 Squadron | 2018 | Both are about Polish pilots of the No. 303 Squadron RAF fighting in the Battle of Britain. |
| The Miseducation of Cameron Post | 2018 | Boy Erased | 2018 | The protagonists of both films are gay teenagers forced by their families to undergo conversion therapy. |
| U – July 22 | 2018 | 22 July | 2018 | Both are dramas based on the 2011 Utøya, Norway massacre. |
| Sink or Swim | 2018 | Swimming with Men | 2018 | Both are about a man who is facing a midlife crisis and joins an all-male synchronised swimming team. |
| Hotel Artemis | 2018 | Hotel Mumbai | 2018 | Both films are Action-thriller about trying terrorist hotel. |
| Smallfoot | 2018 | Abominable | 2019 | Both are computer-animated films about abominable snowmen making first contact with humans and are both set in the Himalayas. |
| Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich | 2018 | The Happytime Murders | 2018 | Both are dark comedies featuring puppets. |
| A Quiet Place | 2018 | The Silence | 2019 | Both are about parents with a deaf teenage daughter trying to survive a planet-wide attack from creatures who hunt their human prey by sound. |
| Beautiful Boy | 2018 | Ben Is Back | 2018 | Both are melodramas about a family with a teenage son facing a drug addiction. |
| Skate Kitchen | 2018 | Mid90s | 2018 | Both are coming of age stories about a group of skateboarding teenagers played by inexperienced actors who skateboard in real life. In both films, the primary character is the newest member of the group and has a contentious relationship with their single mother. |
| RBG | 2018 | On the Basis of Sex | 2018 | A documentary and a biographical drama about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. |
| A Twelve-Year Night | 2018 | El Pepe: A Supreme Life | 2019 | A biographical drama and a documentary about José Mujica. |
| Won't You Be My Neighbor? | 2018 | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood | 2019 | Both films are about Fred Rogers, although the former is a documentary while the latter is a biopic. |
| Widows | 2018 | The Kitchen | 2019 | Both are about the law-abiding wives of criminals who take up their husbands' criminal plans when they are gone. |
| Lez Bomb | 2018 | Happiest Season | 2020 | Both films revolve around lesbians who plan to come out to their conservative families during the holidays, only to be confronted by their ex-boyfriends; Lez Bomb is set on Thanksgiving while Happiest Season takes place on Christmas. |
| Fyre Fraud | 2019 | Fyre | 2019 | Both are documentaries about the Fyre Festival. |
| A Dog's Journey | 2019 | The Art of Racing in the Rain | 2019 | Both are films about a dog's life in their owner's lives and are narrated and seen through the eyes of the dogs. |
| The Haunting of Sharon Tate | 2019 | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | 2019 | Both are films about Sharon Tate and her murder. Although the former is a horror thriller film that dramatizes the events, the latter takes place in an alternate universe where the murder did not take place. |
| Ip Man 4: The Finale | 2019 | Ip Man: Kung Fu Master | 2019 | Both depict the life of Ip Man and are part of a series of films based on him. |
| Portrait of a Lady on Fire | 2019 | Ammonite | 2020 | Both films are set around 1800 on the coast of the English Channel and feature a forbidden lesbian relationship further complicated by class differences. |
| The King's Letters | 2019 | Forbidden Dream | 2019 | Both are about King Sejong the Great and his patronage of scholarship. |
| Ujda Chaman | 2019 | Bala | 2019 | Both movies are about men facing premature baldness, hence becoming a subject of social ridicule and facing problems finding a spouse. |
| The Curse of La Llorona | 2019 | La Llorona | 2019 | Both films are about the legend of La Llorona. |
| Never Rarely Sometimes Always | 2020 | Unpregnant | 2020 | Both are American films about a teenage girl finding out she is pregnant and going on a road trip with her best friend to another state to get an abortion without their parents' consent. |
| The Vow | 2020 | Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult | 2020 | Both are documentaries about the cult NXIVM. |
| Killer Spider | 2020 | Holy Spider | 2022 | Both are dramatizations of the case of Saeed Hanaei, a serial killer who targeted sex workers in Iran. |
| The Battle at Lake Changjin | 2021 | Devotion | 2022 | Also The Battle at Lake Changjin II (2022), the sequel of the former and Sniper (2022). Both films are, or are partially, set during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir at the Korean War. |
| Pinocchio | 2022 | Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio | 2022 | Also Pinocchio: A True Story (2022) and Pinocchio and the Water Of Life (2023). All films are based on The Adventures of Pinocchio. Three of the films—Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Pinocchio: A True Story, and The Adventures of Pinocchio—star Tom Kenny. |
| Violent Night | 2022 | The Mean One | 2022 | Also Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022). All are films about a murderous Santa Claus figure. |
| Fire of Love | 2022 | The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft | 2022 | Both document the life and work of volcanologist and filmmaker couple Katia and Maurice Krafft, making extensive use of their own video footage. |
| Elvis | 2022 | Priscilla | 2023 | Both are films about or revolve around Elvis Presley. |
| Turning Red | 2022 | Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken | 2023 | Both are animated films about adolescent girls who transform into larger creatures (a red panda and a kraken, respectively) under certain conditions. |
| Renfield | 2023 | The Last Voyage of the Demeter | 2023 | Both are films based on Dracula released by Universal Pictures in the same year. |
| The Beast in the Jungle | 2023 | The Beast | 2023 | Both are French adaptations of the Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle. |
| The Covenant | 2023 | Kandahar | 2023 | Also Warhorse One. All films are set in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. |
| The Great Escaper | 2023 | The Last Rifleman | 2023 | Based on the true story of Bernard Jordan, both are films about an elderly World War II veteran who escapes his nursing home in order to attend a milestone anniversary commemorations of the Normandy landings in France. |
| Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe | 2023 | Escaping Twin Flames | 2023 | Both are documentaries about the cult Twin Flames Universe. |
| Reality | 2023 | Winner | 2024 | Both are films about American whistleblower Reality Winner. |
| Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey | 2023 | The Mouse Trap | 2024 | Also Bambi: The Reckoning (2025). All three are slasher films based on famous works only recently made part of the public domain – Bambi, Winnie-the-Pooh, and the Steamboat Willie design of Mickey Mouse, respectively. |
| The Pope's Exorcist | 2023 | The Exorcism | 2024 | Both films star Russell Crowe, in which he plays some form of exorcist. |
| Godzilla Minus One | 2023 | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | 2024 | Both are Godzilla films that celebrate the character's 70th birthday. |
| Totally Killer | 2023 | Time Cut | 2024 | Both films are about a female high school student who is accidentally transported back in time and must unmask an unidentified serial killer who terrorized their town and prevent the murder of a female relative who is in high school at the time. |
| Nyad | 2023 | Young Woman and the Sea | 2024 | Both films are biopics about long-distance female swimmers: Diana Nyad, the first person to swim the Straits of Florida without a shark cage, and Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel. |
| Nosferatu | 2023 | Nosferatu | 2024 | Both are remakes of Nosferatu (1922) |
| The First Omen | 2024 | Immaculate | 2024 | Both films are about young American nuns who travel to Rome, Italy, and become unexpectedly pregnant with what turns out to be a demon fetus/the antichrist. |
| The Idea of You | 2024 | A Family Affair | 2024 | Both films are about single mothers dating much younger celebrities and how their romances affect their daughters. |
| The Beast Within | 2024 | Wolf Man | 2025 | Both films show a man turning into a werewolf and terrorizing his wife and young daughter. |
| Savi | 2024 | Jigra | 2024 | Both movies depict Indian women rescuing their male relatives from a foreign country's high security prison. |
| Piece by Piece | 2024 | Better Man | 2024 | Both movies are musical biopics about artists with the surname Williams depicted in an unorthodox fashion: Piece by Piece shows Pharrell Williams' life through Lego animation, while Better Man depicts Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee. |
| Dear Satan | 2024 | Dear Santa | 2024 | Both films depicts a story of a child accidentally writing a letter to Satan rather than Santa Claus. Also, Dear Satan had its name changed to Dear Santa, due to controversy. |
| Transformers One | 2024 | Mufasa | 2024 | Also Wicked (2024). Prequels about a former friendship and falling out between a protagonist and antagonist of the present-day story. Transformers One and Mufasa are both CGI animated films while Mufasa and Wicked are both musicals. |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | 2024 | The Count of Monte Cristo | 2024 | Both adaptations of the French classic novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, with French production (fully for the theatrical release, also in French language; partially for the TV miniseries, in English language). |
| The Substance | 2024 | A Different Man | 2024 | A person who dislikes their physical appearance undergoes an experimental treatment to become more conventionally attractive, only for their life to be upended. |

## Other meanings
### One story from two perspectives

The term "twin films" has also been used for films produced by the same production company with the purpose of telling the same story from two different points of view:
* Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Françoise (1964) and Anatomy of a Marriage: My Days with Jean-Marc (1964) use the same cast to tell the same story from two different points of view.
* I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) and I Am Curious (Blue) (1968) are a pair of Swedish drama films, both telling the story of director Vilgot Sjöman who plans to make a social film starring his lover Lena Nyman, a theatre student. Blue is a second version of Yellow (the colours taken from the Swedish flag), taking place before and after the first film. It has a more somber and bitterly satiric style, and a further explication of the framing narrative.
* The World War II films Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) are about the Battle of Iwo Jima, told from the perspective of United States Marines and Japanese soldiers.
* The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2014) was a trio of films following Conor Ludlow and Eleanor Rigby, a young married couple living in New York. Him looks at their relationship from Conor's angle, while Her follows Eleanor's. Them has the two twin films edited into a linear story.

### Multiple-language films

The term "twin films" has also been used for multiple-language versions of films:
* Raavan (2010) and Raavanan (2010) use similar casts filming the scenes in both Hindi and Tamil.