Family Movie List: Take #1

50 suggestions for a (not-so-lame) family movie night with your teens.

By ScreenStrong

Movie nights can be an important time for family bonding. Movies can relieve tension, create conversations, and cause us to think outside the box. Watching movies together can create a bridge when your teen is being negative, times are stressed, or when relationships are strained. The right movie can encourage humor, shift perspectives, and boost moods. Time spent together is always a better alternative to your teen hibernating in her room. 

We don’t recommend that you watch a family movie every night, or that watching movies is all you should use for intentional family time, but movies do provide value. When you share a moving story (The Ultimate Gift), clever humor (Shrek), corny humor (Ghostbusters), or even something in a category all its (Napoleon Dynamite), your family makes memories. Movies offer a bank of inside jokes and one liners that come in handy, even when you get the eye-roll from your teens (“Houston, we have a problem.”). Don’t let the eye-rolls get in your way—it’s all part of the experience. 

If you pop the popcorn, they will come… and that’s all I have to say about that!

 

Tips for a Memorable Family Movie Night

  • Take turns picking the movie (parents always have veto power).
  • Add food to enrich the tradition—popcorn or even “dinner and a movie” with food to match the movie theme.
  • Decide on the movie early so you don’t waste time endlessly scrolling to find something to watch. 
  • Do a little research to make sure the content is appropriate for your family.
  • Keep a list of your family favorites for reference. 
  • Re-watch favorites to build tradition, especially during holidays.

 

The ScreenStrong Family Movie List

Below is an ongoing list of ScreenStrong family movies (more posts to come). Don’t worry if you disagree with the choices—like everything else in life, movies are very personal. We hope this list will inspire your movie nights, but make choices that are appropriate for your family. 

(Listed in alphabetical order)

A Beautiful Mind

A League of Their Own

Apollo 13

August Rush

Back to the Future

Ben-Hur

Bend It Like Beckham

Big

The Blind Side

Cars (Disney)

The Case for Christ

Castaway

Chariots of Fire

Dead Poets Society

E.T.

Field of Dreams

Forrest Gump

Ghostbusters

Hachi

Hoosiers

I Still Believe

Invincible

It’s a Wonderful Life

The Karate Kid

Lord of the Rings

Megamind

Miracle

Miracles From Heaven

Napoleon Dynamite

National Treasure

The Natural

October Sky

Overcomer

Patch Adams

The Princess Bride

The Pursuit of Happiness

Radio

Regarding Henry

Remember the Titans

Rocky

The Rookie

Rudy

The Sandlot

Secretariat

Shrek movies

Sound of Music

The Ultimate Gift

Twelve Angry Men (1957)

We Are Marshall

Woodlawn

We’ve created an easy way to keep this list handy, so you can spend more time watching your next movie instead of choosing it. Download or print a PDF version.

Stay tuned for more ScreenStrong movie lists, including our documentary list for teens. Have a family movie suggestion? Please let us know!

Disclaimer: These are suggested movies from other parents. Do your own due diligence to make sure these movies are appropriate for your child. Every child is different, so read a review if you’re concerned.