Have a Festive New Year's at Home With The 37 Best New Year's Movies of All Time

Spending New Year's at home can still be fun, festive and entertaining. To help you celebrate the holiday while social distancing, we've rounded up the best New Year's movies of all time. We've selected movies where New Year's Eve or New Year's Day is somehow a part of the plot. All titles are available to rent or purchase on major streaming services like Apple, Google, Vudu and Amazon Prime.

Some of these movies actively explore universal New Year's themes like fresh starts and persevering through tough times (ahem, 2020)—and some of these films simply aim to entertain. This list of New Year's movies includes romantic comedies, dramas, action thrillers, family films—even scary horror flicks and some sci-fi! Because nothing represents closing out 2021 better than a scary mystery.

Here are the 37 best New Year's Eve movies of all time. 

Best New Year's and New Year's Eve movies ever

New Year's Eve (2011)

Following the box-office success of 2010's similar ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day, Pretty Woman helmer Garry Marshall directed a massive A-list cast including Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi and Sarah Jessica Parker, in an interconnected plot about New Yorkers solving various problems on the eponymous holiday. The unofficial trilogy concluded in 2016, with Mother's Day.

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

We’ll have what she’s having. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan star in this modern classic about friends who test their theory that friends can’t have sex with each other, over several years. Written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner, When Harry Met Sally was named the 23rd best American comedy ever, and the 25th best romantic film, by the American Film Institute. It all ends with an oft-quoted declaration of love moments before the clock strikes twelve.

An American In Paris (1951) 

Inspired by George Gershwin's 1928 composition of the same name, Vincente Minnelli's classic romantic musical stars Gene Kelly as an American ex-GI-turned-artist in a Parisian love triangle. An American in Paris won the Academy Award for Best Picture, it's preserved in the Library of Congress and the American Film Institute named it the ninth best musical of all time.

About Time (2013)

Richard Curtis (rom-com mastermind behind Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually) blends sci-fi and the sentimental in a time-traveling romance starring Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson. The supporting cast includes Margot Robbie (About Time was released mere months before her breakout in The Wolf of Wall Street).

Waiting to Exhale (1995)

Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon headlined Forrest Whitaker's Phoenix-set romantic drama about four female friends and their relationships with men. Based on a novel by Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale was a massive hit, garnering solid reviews and making over four times its budget at the box office. The Los Angeles Times even went so far as to call the picture a "social phenomenon."

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and director/co-writer Nora Ephron are in top form in this swoon-worthy, often hilarious romantic comedy about a widower and a reporter who fall in love over the airwaves. Nominated for two Oscars, Sleepless in Seattle was a big hit with critics and a major force at the box office, grossing roughly ten times its budget worldwide.

Are We There Yet? (2005) 

BrianLevant's family comedy reunites Boyz n the Hood costars Ice Cube and Nia Long. Are We There Yet? centers on a bachelor aiming to woo a divorcée via a road trip with her kids. It served as the basis for the TBS sitcom of the same name that ran for three seasons. A big-screen sequel Are We Done Yet? followed in 2007.

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (1986) 

It's not as iconic—ingrained into our minds—as A Charlie Brown Christmasor It's the Great Pumpkin, but this CBS original, the 30th primetime animated special based on Charles Schulz's Peanuts, is a gentle charmer nonetheless. Happy New Year, Charlie Brown follows the beloved downer as he's assigned a Tolstoy book report over holiday break.

The Holiday (2006) 

JudeLaw, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Kate Winslet star in Nancy Meyers' hit comedy about two similarly unlucky-in-love women from across the pond who swap homes (and find romance with local beaus). Comforting, predictable and well-acted, The Holiday grossed over $200 million worldwide.

The Godfather Part II (1974)

A fateful New Year's kiss is a key plot point in Francis Ford Coppola's crime classic. Not a romantic one, though; it's the symbolic kiss of death between Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and brother Fredo (John Cazale). Like its 1972 predecessor, The Godfather Part II won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It's widely considered one of the most noteworthy sequels that's as good or better than an iconic original.

Trading Places (1983) 

This loose adaptation of Mark Twain's 19th-century novel The Prince and the Pauper, where Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy play financially disparate men who switch lives, was rightfully compared to the classic comedies of Preston Sturges and Frank Capra upon its release. Aykroyd and Murphyare perfect foils, with great chemistry. This was also a breakthrough for Jamie Lee Curtis, who won a British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her hilarious performance as a tough-as-nails hooker with real depth and charm.

The Apartment (1960)

One of the most successful, defining works of old Hollywood creative giant Billy Wilder is this romantic dramedy starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Double Indemnity's Fred MacMurray. Witty and brilliant The Apartment, about an insurance worker torn between career advancement and the girl of his dreams, won five Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

Renée Zellweger is a million-watt movie star in Sharon Maguire‘s funny, beloved rom-com based on an equally cherished book by Helen Fielding. There was some controversy when the slim Texan was cast as a Londoner who worries about her weight; that turned out to be all for naught. Zellweger received her first Best Actress Oscar nod for a sympathetic, captivating embodiment that’s become fairly iconic. This box-office and critical hit was followed by two sadly lesser sequels.

New Year's Evil (1980) 

Following the history-making success of John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978, the 1980s saw a seemingly endless cavalcade of reductive, formulaic slasher pics, many centered on holidays. Cannon's New Year's Evil, centered on a series of murders surrounding a radio host, is pure schlock— and a cult favorite.

Sex and the City: The Movie (2008)

The bougie first big-screen appearance of New York's Fab Four, a massive box-office hit, is a hit-and-miss two-hours-plus epic that plays out like about five episodes of the iconic HBO sitcom. One of the best centers on the friendship of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), ending in a New Year's embrace. This show was often at its best when it examined the intricacies of long-term friendship, warts and all.

Boogie Nights (1997) 

The first of two Paul Thomas Anderson modern classics on this list, Boogie Nights is an exploration of people working in the porn business in 1970s and 80s San Fernando Valley. Mark Wahlberg stars as dishwasher-turned-adult star Diggler alongside an ensemble cast including Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Heather Graham and Philip Seymour Hoffman.