Movie Marathon with Kids: Over 100 Movies for Families

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Over 100 movies ideas for families to watch together and enjoy for a fun movie marathon night.

Family watching movies together

Whenever you are looking for something to do with your family, a movie marathon is a really fun activity to consider.

Kids love movies and love to spend time as a whole family. You can easily elevate the fun with some popcorn and fun drinks.

A movie marathon is a great activity whenever the kids are home from school for an extended period. Whether you are coming up on fall break, Christmas break, Spring break, or summer time, a movie marathon is a great way to spend some time together.

Below are some great movies for you to consider for your movie marathon. Be sure you consider each movie for your own individual children. All parents have different standards and children have different tolerances.

An excellent resource if you are ever wondering if a piece of media adheres to your standards or not is Common Sense Media.

Disney Movies

Disney movies are typically safe and entertaining for any age. With the use of Disney+, you can easily find movies that will work for the ages of your kids. We have the classics, Disney princess movies, and new favorites.

McKenna was very sensitive toward movies for a very long time. There was probably at least a year where the only movie she could handle watching was Cinderella.

When doing a movie marathon, it is fun to have a theme. So you could go with Disney princesses, Disey Pixar, Disney movies that feature animals, classic Disney…there are a lot of ways you can group them. You could also watch them in chronological order.

Here are some great Disney movies to consider:

  • Cinderella
  • Frozen
  • Moana
  • Little Mermaid
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Snow White
  • Mulan
  • Lion King
  • Aladdin
  • Peter Pan
  • Cars
  • Tangled
  • Bambi
  • Finding Nemo
  • Jungle Book
  • Frog Princess
  • Lady and the Tramp
  • Wall-E
  • Raya and the Last Dragon
  • Luca
  • Fantasia
  • The Incredibles
  • Toy Story
  • Monsters, Inc.

Just to name a few. It is worth noting that Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Monsters, Inc. all have several movies that are all entertaining in their series. This makes them a great option for a movie marathon night since you can watch more than one in the same theme. These are series where the sequel is just as good or better than the original.

Musicals

Musicals are another genre of movies that is typically family-friendly for all ages and also interesting to all ages. Some of my favorite musicals to watch as a family include:

  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
  • Newsies (both the original movie and the Broadway version on Disney+ are amazing)
  • The Greatest Showman
  • Mary Poppins
  • Annie
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • High School Musical
  • Decendants
  • Enchanted
  • Sing
  • Singing in the Rain (though this isn’t always entertaining for little ones)

Note that not every musical is suitable for preschoolers and teenagers alike. Some are more mature and more suitable for just the tweens or teens.

Also, most Disney movies are musicals, so keep those in mind.

Some musicals I enjoy with older tweens and teens are:

  • Haispray
  • Les Miserables
  • Little Shop of Horrors
  • Hamilton

Look for musicals on Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime

Adventure Movies

There are a lot of fun adventure movies for family movie night. Many adventure movies are more suitable for older children than younger children.

We are generally big sticklers on our kids not watching PG-13 movies until they are 13 years old (we have made a couple of exceptions). It can be hard to find Adventure movies that are available before that age.

Here are some ideas rated PG:

  • The Chronicles of Narnia
  • Coco
  • Jumanji (the original version. The remake has a lot of language)
  • Dolittle
  • Night at the Museum
  • Never Ending Story
  • Hook
  • National Treasure
  • Holes
  • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (this might creep out your kids at a young age)
  • Indiana Jones (but…probably more of a PG-13)
  • Back to the Future (buuutttt…I personally would rate it PG-13)
  • Jungle Book (live action)

Here are some ideas rated PG-13 that are more suitable for older kids:

  • The Hobbit
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Jungle Cruise
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Jurassic Park
  • Enola Holmes
  • Ready Player One
  • Mulan (live action)

Star Wars

Star Wars is a favorite series at our house and probably Brayden’s very favorite. This is one series where we have allowed PG-13 movies to be watched before the child is 13.

We let our kids begin watching Star Wars movies in 5th grade. We start with the original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi). These are actually all rated PG but we start with these in 5th grade.

We then move on to the “first three”–the Phantom Menace (PG), Attack of the Clones (PG), and Revenge of the Sith (PG-13).

Revenge of the Sith has the most disturbing scene in all of the movies, so this is one you could skip if you do not think it is suitable for your child, or you could skip that scene (Anakin and the lava…).

We then do the next movies as they have come out recently. The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and the Rise of Skywalker (all PG-13 but very mild). We also do Rogue One and Solo (again, PG-13 but benign).

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a huge hit at our house. We are partial to the books. The movies are not great representations of the books, but we still enjoy them. It is fun to see what you have been imagining (like Hogwarts!)

Harry Potter is similar to Star Wars in that it starts out PG and progresses to PG-13. This is one we require to be actually 13 before moving into the PG-13 movies. You can make it through the first three movies as a whole family.

Marvel

Marvel movies are fun for kids with all of the superhero characters to cheer for. These are largely more appropriate for teenagers than anything younger than that.

You might find some movies okay for the older tweens, like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Captain Marvel.

My teens have enjoyed going through the movies from beginning to end, especially with the Avengers movies.

Various Movies

There are a lot of other great movies out there that are fun to watch as a movie. I couldn’t possibly name every good one out there, and surely there are some I have never seen! Here are some ideas to get your mind thinking:

  • LEGO Movies
  • The Princess Bride
  • Little Women (I am partial to the original version)
  • Secondhand Lions
  • Matilda
  • How to Train Your Dragon (a great one if you want multiple movies from one series)
  • National Treasure
  • Despicable Me (another one with several movies)
  • Mrs. Doubtfire
  • Zootopia
  • Parent Trap
  • Indside Out
  • The Muppet Movie
  • Charolette’s Web
  • Free Willy

Christmas Movies

If you are doing a movie marathon over Christmas or winter break, you might be looking for some Christmas movies to binge.

>>>Read: Top 20 Family Christmas Movies to Watch With Your Kids

I have the entire post above full of good ideas for Christmas movies for families, but some that must be considered are:

  • Polar Express
  • Elf
  • Home Alone
  • A Christmas Story

Halloween Movies

Halloween movies are a fun category to binge with kids in the month of October. I have an entire blog post dedicated to Halloween movies for families here:

Halloween Movie List for Families

Conclusion

This post has an extensive list to get you going for a fun family marathon movie night. I would love to hear if there is a movie or series that you think is a must-watch for families! Share in the comments.

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