Inside: The Best Movies to Watch with Teens (100+ Ideas).
One of our favorite things to do together as a family is to sit down with a bowl of popcorn, cuddled up in the living room with some cozy blankets, and settle in for a fun movie night.
But there is usually one problem that comes up consistently… What do we watch?
We want something to appeal to us and the whole family, the parents and the kids, specifically our teens. Let’s face it, the younger kids lose interest quickly, and honestly, we usually do movie night after they are already down for bed. So the movie we choose has to appeal to adults and teens.
Which sounds easy, but has proved to be harder than you think.
We scoured the internet, top movie lists, and of course a little personal research and came up with the top 100 movies to watch with teens that will make any movie night a great time. Check them out!
The Best Movies to Watch with Teens
1. Booksmart: Four years of fun in one crazy night. After years of studying hard, Amy and Molly spend one crazy night capturing the fun of high school they missed out on.
2. Easy A
3. 10 Things I Hate About You
4. Mean Girls: A total classic and 100% must-watch!
5. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before: This Netflix cutie is very formulaic but is made highly watchable by the charm of its two leads.
6. Rushmore
7. Clueless: How long since you’ve watched this cute classic?
8. The Entire Harry Potter Series
9. Spiderman: Homecoming
10. The Princess Bride: I think I have seen this movie at least 27 times and I still have a laugh, so I couldn’t not include it on a list of movies to watch with your teens
11. Election
12. Love, Simon: I freaking love this film and think it’s one of the must-see movies to watch with your teens.
13. Sierra Burgess is a Loser
Great Movies to Watch with Teens
14. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: If you haven’t watched this much-loved teen classic with the kids, now is the time. It’s simply a feel-good, leave-your-cares-behind fun night in for everyone.
15. Grease
16. Back to the Future
17. Pitch Perfect
18. The Star Wars Series
19. The Edge of Seventeen: It’s a very character-driven movie and possibly slower than teens expect in a high school coming-of-age flick, but it’s on a great road.
20. The Secret Life of Bees: The film depicts troubling scenes of racial hatred and domestic and other violence, but it’s handled carefully and overall the mood of the film is uplifting rather than heavy.
21. We Bought a Zoo
22. The Breakfast Club
23. Heathers: The comedy in this movie is pitch black, which means Winona Ryder and Christian Slater are completely in their element.
24. All the Bright Places
Fun Movies to Watch with Teens
25. Brick
26. Little Miss Sunshine: This is one of the cutest, sweetest dysfunctional family road trip movies around.
27. Kick-Ass: It tells the story of Dave, an ordinary teenager, who sets out to become a real-life superhero, calling himself “Kick-Ass”.
28. Baby Driver
29. Dude
30. Guardians of the Galaxy: A stellar cast includes Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot, and Bradley Cooper as Rocket.
31. The Perfect Date
32. Candy Jar
33. The Fundamentals of Caring
34. Before I Fall
35. Dirty Dancing: Not many movies can claim to have launched a multi-generational fanbase (at least outside of huge franchises), but such is the power of Patrick Swayze’s smolder.
36. Pretty in Pink: A True Classic.
Good Movies to Watch for Teens
37. Carrie Pilby
38. She’s the Man
39. A Walk to Remember
40. The Craft: Part black comedy, part feminist tract, part coming-of-age high school yarn, The Craft is a magical teen movie in every sense.
41. The Blind Side
42. A League of Their Own: Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, and a random Madonna star in an underdog sports film with a difference. As America’s stock of male athletes is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, coached by a grumpy coach who’s past his prime. It’s a feel-good, shiny kinda movie that will leave you all feeling like all is right in the world.
43. Legally Blonde
44. Men in Black
45. Bend It Like Beckham: It’s a sporting-underdog, coming-of-age film that also explores themes of family, culture, sexism and racism in a non-threatening way. A nice way to get sports-mad boys to watch a ‘girl’ movie.
46. 13 Going on 30
47. Can’t Buy Me Love
48. North Face
49. The Sandlot
50. Friday Night Lights: A high school underdog football team rises above adversity to come together as a team. You could call this movie formulaic, except it’s a bit too real and raw to be that.
Our Favorite Movies to Watch with Teenagers
51. The Devil Wears Prada
52. Pride and Prejudice
53. The Last Song
54. The Notebook
55. A Quiet Place: Summed up by the tagline, “If they hear you, they hunt you”, A Quiet Place is a 2018 horror film in which a family lives their lives in silence to evade alien creatures that hunt by sound.
56. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
57. Coach Carter
58. The Avengers
59. 50 First Dates
60. The Perks of Being a Wildflower: There’s something about this film that will make you feel that life’s worth living whilst taking you on a genuine emotional journey.
61. Top Gun
62. Dumplin’
63. Five Feet Apart
64. The Hate You Give
The Perfect Movie Night Ideas
65. Knives Out: This film is extremely intense in terms of mystery and really grabs you as an audience member with use of such creative personalities and motives for the characters which amaze me every time I watch it.
66. Gone with the Wind
67. West Side Story
68. The Outsiders
69. Beetlejuice
70. Adventures In Babysitting: Let down by her boyfriend, high school student Chris Parker (a super-likeable Elisabeth Shue) agrees to look after three kids, only to receive a desperate call from bestie Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) to come and pick up her in downtown Chicago. What follows is a series of big city escapades including singing the blues in a nightclub, gang fights, and climbing down a building.
71. Tick, Tick, Boom
72. Space Jam
73. Freedom Writers
74. The Karate Kid
75. Holes: Stanley Green is falsely accused of theft and sent to juvenile detention at Camp Lake Green in a desert in Texas. Here the incarcerated boys are forced by the warden to dig holes in the dirt every day, but why? Holes is smart, funny, and completely original.
76. Hunger Games
77. Now and Then
Funny Movies to Watch with Teens
78. Uncle Buck
79. Ghost Busters
80. Little
81. Freaky Friday
82. The Princess Diaries
83. Rush Hour
84. Sister Act
Inspiring Movies
85. Dead Poet’s Society: We remember this coming-of-age film as uplifting and joyful, but it actually features many heavy and depressing moments. That shouldn’t stop you from watching it with your mature tweens and teens, though. There’s plenty of ‘seize the day’ and ‘captain your ship’ moments to balance the fact that one of the lead characters struggles with depression and ultimately commits suicide. It’s sensitively handled in the film and serves as a good introduction to have a deeply necessary talk about this sensitive subject.
86. The Greatest Showman
87. Amelie: Don’t forget to share this lovely French flick with the kids. It’s just a delight from start to finish. There are a few light sexual encounters and a reference to suicide to navigate, but otherwise, it’s a sweet film about love, loss, connection, and kindness.
88. The Pursuit of Happiness
89. Rocky
90. Enola Holmes: The Netflix flick tells the story of Sherlock Holmes’ sister Enola Holmes. She’s a feminist during Victorian times, raised by a strong mother to be an independent thinker. She’s even smarter than her obnoxious brother and definitely more likable.
Movies to Watch with Your Teenager
91. Jurrasic Park
92. The Hobbit
93. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: It will probably play as quite kitschy for kids raised on CGI and Marvel effects, but it was always kind of tongue-in-cheek so it gets away with it.
94. Jumanji (1995)
95. Mission Impossible
96. Night at the Museum
97. Hate U Give: Prejudice in today’s world When police kill Star’s best friend, and she’s the only witness, what she says could destroy her community or get her killed.
98. The Mighty Ducks
99. X-Men
100. The Untouchables: Based on the plot about a wealthy, pessimistic paraplegic taking on a new personal assistant, this film shouldn’t be as uplifting and joyful as it is. But it is.
More Movie Night Fun
Now that you have a huge list to choose from, good luck on deciding. If you’re looking for a holiday movie night watch, then check out this festive list.
