MOVIES - May 17, 1989

“Rain Man,” which won best picture and three other Oscars this year, will debut on home video Aug. 30, accompanied by a torrential advertising campaign by MGM/UA Home Video and Buick valued at $5 million. The ads will blend scenes from the movie, showing a Buick Roadmaster, and shots of classic Buicks moving up to the current line of cars. There also will be a Buick “message” at the beginning of the video. In the film, Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, as his autistic savant brother, drive across America in a 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible. At a press conference Tuesday, MGM/UA and Buick executives gave $25,000 apiece to the Autism Society of America in advance of future donations that will be contributed for each “Rain Man” cassette sale. The home video is expected to sell for $89.95. The film has grossed more than $160 million in its domestic release.