14 Movies and Shows Like The Thomas Crown Affair for Your Next Heist Romance
The best movies like The Thomas Crown Affair are To Catch a Thief, Out of Sight, Entrapment, Lupin, and Ocean's Eleven: stories where a thief is far too charming to root against, and the person sent to catch him ends up wanting to lose.
Every version of this story has understood the same thing. The heist is the excuse. The real pleasure is watching two people who are equally clever circle each other, both knowing exactly what the other one is, and both enjoying it far too much to stop. Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway had it in 1968. Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo had it in 1999. It is the reason the story keeps getting made.
So this list is sorted by which part of that you came for. The thief and the woman chasing him. The mechanics of a beautiful heist. Or the pure cat-and-mouse, where the crime almost stops mattering. There is a section on the new version as well, and at the end, the format that has quietly built its entire catalogue on the one idea underneath all of this: the most dangerous person in the room is the one nobody is watching.
Quick Picks
The Closest Matches: The Thief and the One Chasing Him
1. To Catch a Thief (1955). Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant as a retired jewel thief on the French Riviera, and Grace Kelly as the heiress who works out what he is and finds it delightful. This is the blueprint the entire subgenre is built from: sun, wealth, elegant people, and a crime that functions mainly as flirtation. If you love the 1999 version's glamour, start here and see where it came from.
2. Out of Sight (1998). Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of Elmore Leonard, with George Clooney as a bank robber and Jennifer Lopez as the US Marshal hunting him. They spend a scene locked in a car trunk together and the film never recovers, in the best way. The most convincing version of the central fantasy on this list, which is that the chase itself is the attraction.
3. Entrapment (1999). Sean Connery as a legendary art thief and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the insurance investigator who may be playing him, may be joining him, and will not tell you which. Released the same year as the Brosnan remake and built on almost exactly the same premise. If you want the most direct substitute available, this is it.
4. Lupin (2021 to present). Omar Sy as Assane Diop, a modern gentleman thief working from the Arsène Lupin novels his father left him. Created by George Kay and François Uzan. What lifts it above a straight caper is the motive: Assane steals to expose the wealthy family that destroyed his father. That makes it the most thematically relevant pick here, for reasons the new film section below will explain.
5. White Collar (2009 to 2014). Matt Bomer as a forger and con artist released from prison to work art crime cases with the FBI agent who caught him, played by Tim DeKay. Six seasons of forged canvases, elegant cons and a partnership built on mutual admiration neither man will say out loud. The most bingeable entry on this list by a wide margin.
If You Came for the Heist Itself
6. Ocean's Eleven (2001). Soderbergh again, with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts robbing three Las Vegas casinos in one night. The gold standard for heist filmmaking as pure pleasure. Nothing here is stressful, everything is cool, and the plan is the point.
7. Ocean's Eight (2018). Gary Ross directs Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter through a jewel theft staged at the Met Gala. Closer to Thomas Crown than the other Ocean's films, because it is an art-world crime executed by people wearing better clothes than anyone in the room.
8. Inside Man (2006). Spike Lee's bank heist thriller with Denzel Washington as the negotiator, Clive Owen as the man inside, and Jodie Foster as the fixer working for interests neither of them can see. The smartest plot on this list, and the one where the theft turns out to be about something else entirely.
9. Widows (2018). Directed by Steve McQueen, which is a coincidence worth enjoying given who played Thomas Crown in 1968. Viola Davis leads four women forced to complete their dead husbands' unfinished job. Harder, angrier and more political than anything else here, and superb.
10. The Italian Job (2003). F. Gary Gray's remake with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham and Edward Norton, a gold heist, a betrayal, and a fleet of Mini Coopers through the Los Angeles storm drains. Pure momentum.
11. Money Heist (2017 to 2021). Álex Pina's Spanish series, with Úrsula Corberó and Álvaro Morte as the Professor, running the longest heist in television history inside the Royal Mint. Not elegant like Crown, but the most addictive planning-and-improvising loop the genre has produced.
If You Came for the Cat and Mouse
12. Killing Eve (2018 to 2022). Developed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge from Luke Jennings' novellas, with Sandra Oh as an intelligence officer and Jodie Comer as the assassin she is chasing. Strip the theft out of Thomas Crown and this is what is left: two people who should be enemies, obsessed with each other, and clearly having the time of their lives.
13. Catch Me If You Can (2002). Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio as con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. and Tom Hanks as the FBI agent who spends years on his trail. The warmest film on this list, and the best study of a pursuit that turns into something close to affection.
14. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024). Donald Glover and Maya Erskine as two strangers assigned to pose as a married couple by an agency neither of them understands. The series version reworks the 2005 film into something funnier and sadder, and it runs on the same engine as Crown: two competent people, each hiding the truth, each testing how much the other already knows.
About the New Version
Michael B. Jordan directs, produces and stars in the next Thomas Crown Affair, arriving in theatres and IMAX on 5 March 2027 from Amazon MGM Studios. It is his second film as director after Creed III, and his first release since winning the Best Actor Oscar for Sinners.
Adria Arjona plays the investigator on his trail, with Kenneth Branagh, Lily Gladstone, Danai Gurira, Ruth Negga, Aubrey Plaza and Pilou Asbæk in support. Drew Pearce and Jason Hall wrote the screenplay from Alan Trustman's original, Bradford Young shot it in London, and Jon Batiste composed the score, including a new performance of "The Windmills of Your Mind."
Jordan has been clear that this is a reimagining rather than a remake. The change that matters most for anyone reading this list is the motive. Where the earlier films gave you a bored rich man stealing for the thrill of it, this Crown is returning stolen and sold works to the people they were taken from. Which is why Lupin sits so high on this list. Both stories understand that a thief becomes irresistible the moment you learn what he is actually taking back.
Seven months is a long wait. Everything above will fill it.
The Format Built on the Man Nobody Is Watching
Here is the idea underneath every version of this story: the most dangerous person in the room is the one everybody has dismissed. A thief who looks like a philanthropist. A woman who looks like she is losing.
That idea is not a subgenre in short dramas. It is the foundation.
Short dramas, also called micro dramas or vertical dramas, are complete serialised stories told in one-to-two minute vertical episodes, each ending on a hook. The hidden-power reveal is the format's single most-used move, because it can be deployed every ninety seconds instead of saved for a third act.
On DashReels, the English-language catalogue is built on it:
- Falling for the Enemy, a blind date that turns into a dangerous discovery about who the man across the table really is
- The Devil Wears My Pearls, a billionaire's wife hiding in plain sight
- Caught in a Bad Romance, for attraction to someone whose real identity changes everything
- In the Shadow of Ivy Wright, hidden identity inside a family that thinks it knows her
- Newly Wed Enemies, two people bound together who would each rather win than be loved
- Dangerous Darlings: Now We Got Bad Blood, for the pure power game
- Velvet Poison: Some Choices Scar You Forever, elegant, ruthless and slow to show its hand
Selected episodes of every series are free to watch on the DashReels website, with no download needed to start, and full stories continue in the app. When you want the reveal without waiting until March, this is where it lives.
[Explore short dramas on DashReels →]
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the new Thomas Crown Affair come out?
It opens in theatres and IMAX worldwide on 5 March 2027, released by Amazon MGM Studios in the United States and by Sony Pictures Releasing internationally. The first teaser arrived in late July 2026.
How many versions of The Thomas Crown Affair are there?
Three. Norman Jewison's 1968 original with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, which earned two Oscar nominations. John McTiernan's 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, which moved the crime from a bank robbery to an art theft. And Michael B. Jordan's 2027 reimagining.
Do I need to watch the older films before the new one?
No. There is no continuity between them, and each version tells a self-contained story. That said, the 1999 film is the one the new version is most often compared to, so it is the most useful primer if you only watch one.
What is a heist romance?
A story where a crime and a courtship run on the same track, so every move in the theft doubles as a move in the relationship. The tension comes from two people testing how much the other already knows. To Catch a Thief established the template and almost every entry on this list is a variation on it.
What is an enemies to lovers story?
A romance where the leads begin as genuine opposition, professional, personal or both, and where the attraction grows precisely because neither will back down. It is one of the most-requested structures in romance and one of the biggest genres in short dramas, in titles like Newly Wed Enemies and Falling for the Enemy on DashReels.
What is the hidden boss trope?
It is the story of a person everyone in their world has written off, who is secretly the most powerful figure in the room. Chinese web fiction built an entire genre on it called 赘婿, the live-in son-in-law, where a man treated as worthless by his in-laws turns out to command an empire. It is the most-produced male-lead archetype in vertical drama, and it is exactly what makes Thomas Crown work: the dangerous one is the person nobody is watching.
Why are stories about a powerful person hiding their real self so satisfying?
Because the audience is let in on the secret before the other characters are, which converts every ordinary scene into suspense. You are not waiting to find out what is true. You are waiting for everyone else to catch up, and enjoying every second they do not. That is why the reveal, not the crime, is the payoff in all three versions of this story.
What is the best app for billionaire and hidden identity short dramas?
If secret power, wealth and enemies-to-lovers tension are what you want, DashReels focuses on English-language originals across those genres, with titles like Falling for the Enemy and The Devil Wears My Pearls, and it lets you start watching on the web before installing the app.
Where can I watch romance short dramas for free?
DashReels offers selected episodes of every series free on its website, with full stories continuing in the app. It is the simplest way to try the format before downloading anything.
Final Thoughts
The Thomas Crown Affair has survived nearly sixty years and three leading men because the heist was never the point. The point is two people who recognise each other instantly, and the long, elegant pleasure of neither one admitting it.
Match your next watch to the part you miss most. To Catch a Thief for the glamour, Out of Sight for the chemistry, Lupin for the thief with a reason, Killing Eve for the obsession. And when you want the moment somebody realises they underestimated the person in front of them, that reveal now arrives every ninety seconds.
