Table of Contents
Better times to binge-watch a new or old favorite TV show or movie franchise are hard to come by. With everyone staying indoors these days, here’s a list of some of the best movie franchises to watch at home to keep you distracted from the quarantine.
Star Wars
Star Wars is the epitome of a movie marathon. Now with 10 sequential titles, an animated series and The Mandalorian all available to watch through, a marathon of the original 3, prequel to original, or chronologically through all 9 is a great way to spend a movie day. This movie franchise checks many of the movie lover’s boxes because of the action, (totally accurate) science “fiction”, romance, an underdog story and many others.
Tremors
Tremors is a fantastic movie series to sit down and watch all of the way through. With stars like Reba Mcentire and Kevin Bacon kicking things off in the original, you know the rest of the franchise has to be good. While Tremors is at its heart a Sci-Fi movie, there are plenty of laughs and action to be had throughout the collection too.
John Wick
John Wick is a movie franchise about a man who first and foremost is an animal lover. If you’re a dog person this trilogy will be as much fun to watch as it is vindicating for the starring character. With no shortage of action, John Wick will leave you on the edge of your seat from the first movie all the way to the third.
Spiderman
Spiderman is a franchise that has changed starring actors so many times it can be difficult to keep up with specific continuity issues or which leading man played the friendly wall-crawler best in your opinion. Hopefully, we can all agree that the original trilogy by Tobey Maguire was a classic and therefore should be grandfathered into any discussion of a Spiderman movie marathon, which at the very least should give you 4-5 movies to enjoy; more if you include Andrew Garfield’s and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park and Jurassic World: there doesn’t need to have a lot said about either franchise. The original Jurassic Park series was a blockbuster hit that broke all of the rules we knew and thought we loved about special effects with their use of animatronics. Jurassic World carries on with tradition and pays homage to the originals with their newest adaptations. With the third and final(?) Jurassic World movie coming out within the next year, it may not hurt to get started on your archeology homework and binge-watch both the originals and the new Jurassic World.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter took the world by storm when their books first hit the shelves in 1997. Since then, the world has grown to love and grown up with the starring cast of the franchise. Going back and reliving all of your favorite Hogwarts moments is not only a great way to spend a day, its a great heartwarming and nostalgic trip down memory lane for many of us. Never seen Harry Potter? You may want to forget about the rest of this list and watch this franschise.
Marvel
Does anything else really need to be said? With the culmination of 10 years all brought into one of the best movie franchise events of our lifetime, and in all of history, going back to the start with Ironman or any assortment of Marvel movies since then is sure to be a great time. If you want to feel the snap as though you were a part of the action, you’ll have some marathoning to do as there are at least 20 Marvel titles you’ll need to watch. That doesn’t include hidden gems that while Marvel, stand outside of the franchised Marvel Cinematic Universe; like the old Spiderman movies, The Punisher, Howard The Duck and others. However you decide to watch, it is widely agreed that titles like Daredevil and Elektra can be passed over, you won’t be missing anything.
Batman
Na na na na na BATMAN! Christian Bale is everyone’s Batman from my generation at least. A little bit older viewers may disagree though. If you’re not familiar with a Batman who isn’t Christian Bale, make sure to add the original DC Caped Crusader movies to your list. Batman Forever, Batman Returns as well as Batman and Robin, while vary from movie to movie on viewer response, at the very least are all enjoyable to watch in their own right. Plus, Jim Carrey as the Riddler, The Govonator as Mr. Freeze, and Uma Therman as Poison Ivy are all things everyone should see in my personal opinion. If you need more of the Dark Knight after that, Christian Bale’s Batman trilogy is the perfect franchise for a movie marathon.
Indiana Jones
The original Indiana Jones movies made Harrison Ford more than just Han Solo, it made him Indiana Jones and Han Solo! Nobody was cooler than that back in the day. The history teacher by day always had a knack for getting himself into, and out of some hairy situations. As long as they didn’t include any snakes, nothing shook this part-time adventurer and collector of archeological antiques. From the first Jones movie all the way to the most recent title – The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones will satisfy all of your action and adventure movie needs.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings was groundbreaking at the time of its release. Its still one of the biggest and best movie franchises to ever be made! Hard to imagine leaving something like this off of the list. Travel through Middle Earth with a band of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and wizards in this tale of courage and adventure. If you enjoy a good battle scene or fantasy-based storytelling, this is a must for you. Add onto the marathon by stemming out of the franchise but staying within the same story by watching The Hobbit trilogy as well!