Video Renters Seek Escapist and Terrorist-Themed Titles

Americans craving an escape from TV images of the ruined World Trade Center turned for relief this past week to their local video stores to rent fantasy, comedy and even Hollywood-style terrorist movies such as “Die Hard.”

Business was anything but typical at a dozen Southern California video stores, which experienced steep increases in traffic and repeated requests for films about Nostradamus.

The 16th century astrologer is widely credited in e-mails on the Internet with having predicted the World Trade Center attack. Amazon.com Inc. has reported a run on orders for Nostradamus books. But experts have dismissed as a hoax many verses attributed to Nostradamus.

An employee at the Blockbuster video store in Tustin said, “I’ve had 10 calls a day for Nostradamus [films], and we only have one copy.”

Beyond the Nostradamus request, video-store managers said customers were looking for any kind of diversion. Family-oriented movies were particularly popular, they said, as parents sought refuge for their children from the destruction and sadness on TV.

One store said it had sold out of some old Disney animated titles that rarely rented anymore, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Another store reported a similar run on the family-oriented “Home Alone” movies.

“People are coming in for comfort food,” said Chris Reidy of Videoactive in Silver Lake.

Several video retailers noticed an unusually high interest in action movies dealing with themes closely tied to the events of the week.

“They wanted patriotic titles like ‘The Siege’ and anything where terrorists got the stuffing kicked out of them,” said a Blockbuster manager in Los Angeles, who cited company policy and declined to give her name.

“Executive Decision,” the 1996 film about Islamic militant hijackers carrying nerve gas, was a popular title at the Costa Mesa Hollywood Video store, with all six copies rented and requests by 10 other customers.

Business began booming for many video stores Tuesday afternoon.

“We had three times the normal volume on Tuesday, as people came in sad and depressed and sick of what they were seeing on TV,” said Cathy Wilson, assistant manager of the Hollywood Video store on Westwood Boulevard in West Los Angeles.