A Family Flix Club
Patty Leonard was in the home video distribution industry for years before she became a mom, had an epiphany, and founded Family Values Cinema.
by Mark Moring | posted 4/10/2007
 1 of 4
Long before many U.S. homes even had a simple VHS tape player, Patty Leonard knew there would someday be a booming industry for home video.
So she went into the business herself, packaging and distributing videos in the fledgling market. She partnered with Avon to target women and with ESPN to target men, and she included plenty of children's videos in the mix as well. Business was booming.
Leonard brings poodles, er, oodles of good movies to FVC
But it wasn't until she became a mom herself that Leonard stopped to really think about the content of the product she was peddling—and she realized that not all of it was "family-friendly." She took a few years off to focus on motherhood, but in the fall of 2005, she experienced what she says was an "epiphany with Jesus" and decided to go back into the business—this time offering only videos that were not only wholesome, but ripe fodder for family discussion.
Thus was born Family Values Cinema, a DVD-of-the-month club designed by moms for moms. For the price of $21.95 per month, FVC delivers two new videoa each month to your home—for keeps; this is not a rental club. The monthly package also includes a family discussion guide and bonus material with clean comedy acts.
The films are reviewed and approved by a team of a dozen mothers—who watch literally hundreds of films before culling them down to a dozen a year for the club—and then later given the Dove Foundation's family-friendly seal of approval. On the FVC website, Leonard says she is focusing on finding films "that affirm the values of faith in God and family that serve as the foundation of a strong nation."
We recently chatted with Leonard about her background and motives for launching FVC.
Tell me a little about your history in the home video business?
Patty Leonard: I've owned a couple of home video distribution companies. I started when I was just 25 years old, a company called SI Video which distributed children's videos, classic television, documentaries, fitness, hobbies and travel—basically anything that wasn't a major feature film release. At the time, VCR penetration was in its infancy; probably only 4-5 percent of American homes had a VCR. And as the video industry grew, it was really designed as a rental business; the heads of the home video companies never thought it would be a sell-through business, and they certainly never thought it would surpass box office.
So I started out by offering these titles to consumers in four-color beautiful slick catalogs. I thought if I could get these into homes, they'd make great gifts for families. We also partnered with ESPN and did a sports video catalog. It was a fun business, and we were very successful. That lasted six years.
Then what?
Leonard: About that time, I noticed that women were not buying VHS tapes; men were clearly the buyers. I thought if I could just get inside a woman's home and show her that it's a lot easier to make a soufflé if she could watch it as opposed to read about it, then I might be able to convince her that VHS tapes are her friend, and that the VCR is not an enemy.
Browse More Movies
CT Movies Home Page | Now Showing | New on Video | All Reviews
Coming Soon | Discussion Guides | Interviews | Commentary
News & Misc. | Special Sections | About Us
Your Feedback | About Us | CT Mag Home Page
| |
|
