Strikingly similar Movies that came out at the same time...

Also 1998: Antz and A Bug's Life

1997: Dante's Peak and Volcano.

I know they aren't weird coincidences. I guess a studio will find out about a production and realize they can make some money off of a similar theme...

Corrected... Not sure why I was thinking of that Tom Hanks film.

1987-88

Body-swap comedies:

Big (Tom Hanks)
Vice Versa (Judge Reinhold)
18 Again!
Like Father Like Son (Dudley Moore)

1989

Buddy-cop/dog action comedies:

K-9 (Jim Belushi)
Turner and Hoock (Tom Hanks, again)

1989

"Aliens" underwater or trying to cash in on the James Camerons upcoming sci-fi/advendture The Abyss:

Deepstar Six
Leviathan
The Evil Below
Lords of the Deep

and probably far more "classics"

Money and hoping to cash in on what is mostly a far superior movie. 
But, I rather take my chance with stuff like Vice Versa, Leviathan, Deepstar Six and K-9 anyday or time, than watching anymore of those horrible turds which The Asylum keep ditching out several times a year.

However, I gotta hand it to them, they seem to make it well worth their while, and will probably keep on making pure DTV trash based on huge Hollywood productions, as long as possible.

Good call, and I actually enjoyed that movie. Very cheesy, but in a great 80s charming and funny over-the-top way and where also Kim Catrall never looked better, or so I think.

I do believe it actually got a sequel, but never seen it, or planning on doing so either.

"According to a May 1998 issue of Starlog magazine, producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck came up with the concept for "Deep Impact" sometime in the late 1970s, when they were contemplating a way to update the 1951 film "When Worlds Collide." The producers took the concept to Steven Spielberg, who had already bought the rights to "The Hammer of God," a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

Eventually, the filmmaker would merge the projects with a script by Bruce Joel Rubin. The subsequent drafts of the screenplay took it away from "When Worlds Collide" and "Hammer of God" enough that neither was credited; this left Clarke deeply unhappy, particularly since DreamWorks had used his name in promotion of the project.

Years later, Rubin claimed that Disney had outright stolen the idea for the project. In the nonfiction book "Tales from the Script," the writer says that, while taking a meeting at Disney, he spoke about the "Deep Impact" script, and noticed that the executive he was meeting with was furiously taking notes. This wouldn't be the first time Disney had been accused of plagiarism, and it wouldn't be the last."

Here are some other similar movies which came out around the same time:


Kick-Ass (2010) and Super (2010)

The Prestige (2006) and The Illusionist (2006)

The Matrix (1999) and The 13th Floor (1999)

Ed TV (1999) and The Truman Show (1998)

The Eagle (2011) and Centurion (2010)

TimeCrimes (2007) and Triangle (2009)

Coco Before Chanel (2009) and Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)


There were almost going to be two movies about Alexander The Great, but Bazz Luhrman’s version with Leo Di Caprio was scrapped at the last moment.

Back in the early 00s, with the success of stuff like Gladiator (2000), I guess it was no coincidence that two big budget "epic" movies with a huge cast and even larger budget, would be released the same year (not sure if the same summer?) but Troy and Alexander were at least two of that kind of cimena which arrived in 2004.

Troy was not fantastic, but clearly the better one, as Alexander however, ended up as one of the worst movies I have ever seen, so no really "contest" there.