Cheap cinema with kids: £1 films, toddler sessions and relaxed screenings

A family of four can easily spend £50 on a cinema trip before anyone has touched the popcorn. They do not have to. Every big chain in Merseyside runs cut price family screenings at weekends and in the school holidays, mostly in the mornings, and adults usually pay the same as children. The catch is that they are recent family favourites rather than this week's new release, and you have to book the right screening. We checked each chain's own pages on 2 November 2026; prices change, so look at the listing before you book. This guide covers where to go and what each scheme is called; for what is showing this week, use the cinema's own listings.

The £1 to £3 weekend films

ODEON Kids is the cheapest: £1 a ticket for children and the adults with them, every Saturday and Sunday and every day in the school holidays. It runs at selected cinemas, so look for the green Kids label when you book. Merseyside has three ODEONs: Liverpool ONE in the city centre, Switch Island near Netherton with its big free car park, and Bromborough on the Wirral.

Vue's Mighty Mornings show a recent family film for ages four to eleven from £2.49 a ticket booked online, late mornings at weekends and every day in the school holidays, at Vue Birkenhead by Conway Park station and Vue Southport in Ocean Plaza. Book online: it costs more at the door.

Showcase's Family Favourites are £2.49 for everyone at 10am every Saturday and Sunday and through the holidays, at Showcase Cinema de Lux on the East Lancashire Road. The same cinema also sells a £35 family ticket for any film before 5pm, every day, which is the better deal when the children want the new release.

Cineworld's Movies for Juniors are discounted weekend and holiday morning screenings for children and the adults with them, from about £2.50, at Cineworld Speke and Cineworld St Helens. Cineworld also has a Family Ticket on ordinary screenings where adults pay children's prices.

Picturehouse at FACT on Wood Street runs a Kids' Club every Saturday at 11am, and its child tickets are £3 on selected U, PG and 12A films. Adults are only let in to the Kids' Club with a child.

The weekend schemes show films that have been out for a while, so a summer hit like Toy Story 5 is the kind of film that comes round again in them in the months after release. Check each cinema's listing for what is on this weekend.

Brand new films for less

The cheap morning screenings rarely show a film in its first weeks. For a new release, the family tickets are the better deal: Showcase's £35 family ticket covers any film before 5pm every day, and Cineworld and Picturehouse both have family tickets where adults pay children's prices. Book online, and go before 5pm when prices are lower.

Disney's Hexed is in cinemas from 27 November, which makes it the big family film for the run up to Christmas.

A first cinema trip for toddlers

Vue's Big Shorts are made for ages one to four: an hour at most, a new programme of short films or favourite TV episodes each month, dimmed lights, and children are allowed to sing, dance and run about. They are from £3.99 a ticket, every morning, at Birkenhead and Southport.

Picturehouse at FACT has Toddler Time every Tuesday at 11am, 30 minutes of preschool episodes, and the adults go free. The Light at New Brighton runs Toddler Time too, where joining in is encouraged, from £3.99 a child with the parent free.

Babies

Picturehouse at FACT's Watch with Baby is every Wednesday at 11am, for parents with babies under one; the babies go free and adults are only admitted with a baby. ODEON's Newbies screenings are for parents with babies under two, and Cineworld's Cinebabies have dimmed lights, lower sound and space for prams; both appear on each cinema's listings. Vue lets babies under two in free on a lap at any film rated 12A or below that starts before 10pm. Pick an aisle seat so you can slip out.

Relaxed and autism friendly screenings

These keep the lights up a little and the sound down, skip the adverts and trailers, and let people move around and come and go. ODEON holds autism friendly screenings one Sunday morning a month, found under a filter on each cinema's listings. Picturehouse at FACT usually has a relaxed screening of a new release on the second Monday of the month. Cineworld St Helens runs inclusive screenings for neurodiverse audiences on Sundays, Vue lists its autism friendly screenings on each cinema page, and The Light has relaxed family screenings with lower sound and no trailers.

If your child is disabled and gets Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment, the CEA card lets a carer in free at most UK cinemas, including ODEON, Cineworld and Vue.

The independents

The Plaza Community Cinema in Waterloo opened on 2 September 1939, closed the same day when war broke out, and has been run by volunteers as a charity since 1997. It has three screens, regular family club screenings and a BAFTA award from 2020, and every screening is cheap: £5.90 for adults, £4.90 for children aged 3 to 14, and under 3s free, with a free ticket for a carer. Go for the building as much as the film, then on to Crosby beach.

The Light at New Brighton has Family Specials from £5.75 at weekends and in school holidays, the toddler and baby sessions above, and the beach outside. Woolton Picture House, Liverpool's oldest cinema, has been reopened by the community and runs monthly screenings of classic films to raise money for more.

Parking and getting there

Switch Island, Speke and Southport have free parking: Switch Island and New Mersey have big car parks, and Ocean Plaza gives three hours free if you extend on the tablets inside Vue. Vue Birkenhead is a minute from Conway Park station. Picturehouse at FACT has no car park but is three minutes from Liverpool Central, and ODEON Liverpool ONE is next to the Liverpool ONE car parks.

The FamDays verdict

For the price, ODEON Kids at £1 is hard to beat; for a toddler's first film, Vue's Big Shorts or FACT's Toddler Time; for the full experience, the Plaza in Waterloo. Book online, go in the morning, and keep the £35 Showcase family ticket in mind for the week a new film everyone is desperate to see comes out.