Is every movie based on a specific arc in the series?

[DBZ Expert]

Like Movie 1 is based on the Raditz arc etc?

[LoganForkHands73]

Most of them contain superficial similarities to concurrent arcs of the time so to an extent, yes, but many of them tell radically different stories. Z1, for instance, has a scene of Goku and Piccolo teaming up to take down Garlic Jr which is ripped almost shot-for-shot from the Raditz fight and the film's plot involved Gohan being kidnapped, but otherwise there's very little in common. But then some like Z7 (Android 13) more blatantly crib elements from the series.

[Cipher]

The movies had a few goals that lended themselves toward including similar scenarios to the then-current series:

1) They were meant to entice new audiences to the ongoing series—running as double- and triple-features with other JUMP property movies—and thus picked casts resembling where everyone would be roughly at that point in the anime, whether or not it made any sense continuity-wise.

2) They were meant to be something of digest versions for the series as the only pieces of animated home media readily available in Japan. Releases of the anime series itself were still a long way off. So maybe you couldn’t rewatch Gohan vs. Cell whenever you wanted, but you could have the tankobon and a siiimilar animated sequence via the Movie 9 VHS.

[Polyphase Avatron]

And then with Super they reversed it and made two arcs based on movies

[xm0c]

Mostly, yes. Though the OG Dragon Ball movies were more retellings of some of the arcs, and Z movies were more fully based on what was relevant in the franchise.

DBM1 is a retelling of the original search for the Dragon Balls, with Pilaf taken out. DBM3 is a combined retelling of the 21st Tournament, the Red Ribbon Army, and the 22nd Tournament arcs. DBZM1 is based on the fight with Raditz, DBZM3 is based on the fight against Vegeta and Nappa, DBZM4 is based on the fight with King Piccolo, DBZM5 is based on the fight with Freeza, DBZM6 is based on the fight with Mecha Frieza, DBZM7 is based on the fight against the Androids, DBZM9 is based on the fight with Cell, and DBZM12 is based on the fight with Boo.

DBM2, DBZM2, DBZ8, DBZM10, DBZM11, and DBZM13 take elements from the series, but are much more original than the above mentioned movies.