In this study, the magnetic properties, coercivity mechanism, and magnetization reversal process were investigated for Ce-(Y)-Pr-Fe-B films. After the addition of Y and subsequent heating treatment, the formations of REO (RE ≡ Ce and Pr) and REFe2 (RE ≡ rare earths) phases are inhibited, and the microstructure of Ce-Y-Pr-Fe-B film is optimized. Meanwhile, the coercivity and the squareness of the hysteresis loop are significantly improved. The coercivity mechanism of Ce-Y-Pr-Fe-B film is determined to be a mixture of nucleation and pinning mechanisms, but dominated by the nucleation mechanism. The demagnetization results show that the nucleation of reversal magnetic domains leads to irreversible reversal. Our results are helpful to understand the coercivity mechanism and magnetization reversal of permanent magnetic films with multi-main phases.