25 Non-Animated Family Movie Night Ideas

One of my favorite memories when I met my husband when I was a teenager is that his family always had pizza and movie night on Fridays. My mother in law made THE best pizzas from scratch! They always had a lot of kids coming and going because they fostered, but Friday nights were one of those things you could always count on.

It’s a tradition that I fell in love with and agreed early on that we would continue ourselves. We would set one night aside to sit down, have dinner together (still mastering my own pizzas) and watch a movie together.

When your kids are young, most families focus on the animated films like Disney and Pixar and that’s great. However, as they get older, you’ll want to begin watching live action films.

So, just for fun here’s a list of some of my favorite non-animated family movies, not necessarily in order. Some of these will depend on age and gender (ie. #13 & 17 might be preferred by the girls lol) but this will give you a fun list for your own family movie night!

1. We Bought a Zoo w/ Matt Damon
2. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – The original!!!
3. Hook w/ Robin Williams
4. Chef w/ Jon Favreau
5. Jumanji – The original is my favorite, but they are all fun
6. Marry Poppins – The Original 1964 version
7. Night at the Museum w/ Ben Stiller – There are 3
8. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
9. The Princess Bride (1987)
10. Doubtfire (1993)
11. The Sandlot (1993)
12. Enchanted w/ Amy Adams
13. The Greatest Showman w/ Hugh Jackman
14. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
15. Jurassic Park – Any of them.
16. Hunger Games Series
17. The Harry Potter Series
18. The Princess Diaries
19. School of Rock w/ Jack Black
20. Chronicles of Narnia
21. Ghostbusters (1984)
22. Little Women (1994) w/ Winona Ryder
23. The Mighty Ducks (1992)
24. Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
25. Mulan (2020)

This is by no means an exhaustive list. These are just some of my favorites. This also doesn’t touch Christmas time…maybe that will be for another time.

What do you think? Have any favorite family movies that I didn’t include? I would love to hear from you. Share your thoughts below.