DVDs dear to Dad
FATHER'S DAY GUIDE: Retailers promote catalog, new releases for the June 17 holiday
By Buzz McClain -- Video Business, 4/2/2007
APRIL 2 | Father’s Day continues to grow as a gift-giving holiday, and consumers are finding that DVDs are ideal for dear old dad. This year, the holiday is on Sunday, June 17.
Whatever the titles may be, DVD as a category continues to grow each year as a Father’s Day promotional opportunity.
Both rental and sell-through DVD retailers can use the day to promote dormant catalog titles as well as new releases that might appeal to pops.
“We have a themed wall,” says Jim McCabe, owner of Alexandria, Va.’s Video Vault. “And we have an employee who is just a killer artist; he does all these caricatures for the wall. We’ll pull a dozen or two dozen titles with an Easter theme or a Mother’s Day theme—I’m sure we’ll do one for Father’s Day—and we change it every couple of weeks.”
The modest display seems to be effective. “We have a group that always goes up there to see what’s happening,” McCabe says.
Younger fathers also make good DVD recipients, with newer fare or collectible catalog titles coming to market.
This year seems to have more testosterone-fueled new releases than in previous seasons, which invites the opportunity to create an end-cap or special section that groups them together as “Gifts for Dad.”
Some recent theatrical releases already on DVD in special editions could be included in such a section, along with special editions of older titles. For example:
• Gritty performances and family themes run rampant in Warner’s double-disc Blood Diamond, with Oscar-nominated actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou.
• The male-dominated Best Picture Oscar winner, Warner’s The Departed, also in a two-disc set, had tough-guy Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg working for Best Director winner Martin Scorsese.
• James Bond, a reliable franchise, boasts a new Bond, Daniel Craig, in Casino Royale (Sony, two-disc set). Many consider Craig the best Bond since Sean Connery.
• On June 12, Fox hustles out a two-disc set of The Hustler, with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason sparring on a pool table, along with Newman’s The Verdict.
But the daddy of all Father’s Day heroes is John Wayne, who has been promoted as dads’ fan favorite since the days of VHS and and Beta. Why?
“He’s still the No. 1 male movie star,” says Feltenstein. “There will never be another John Wayne.”
More recently, one has come close, though. “The only person of the modern era for staying power is Clint Eastwood,” Feltenstein says. “He’s another one who just explodes at Father’s Day.”
To celebrate Wayne’s 100th birthday, Warner and Paramount Home Entertainment are teaming up to roll out 48 titles on May 22 in advance of the occasion, including a special collector’s edition of Paramount’s True Grit (VB, 3-5). Dads may already have a copy of Grit, but the special edition will include extras not previously released.
Baby boomers have been accustomed to having entertainment choices throughout their lives, so special editions with compelling extras and on high definition don’t intimidate them. They also are more likely to have top-of-the-line playback equipment, and they feel comfortable—no doubt because of secure incomes—purchasing movies they have previously enjoyed, as well as receiving them.
And that might also include Warner’s 1997 Billy Crystal-Robin Williams comedy Father’s Day.
