The Indian in the Cupboard (Sony Pictures photo)
May 25, 2026
John Reina, a longtime sales executive at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and its predecessor, Columbia TriStar Home Video, died May 23 in Phoenix.
He was 78.
Reina is best remembered in the home video industry for his long tenure at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, where according to his LinkedIn profile he served as SVP of sales from 2003 to 2007. In that role, he managed the top national retail, internet, and grocery accounts in North America, responsible for research, development, sales planning, new business opportunities, and merchandising.
Before that, Reina served for more than nine years as VP of sales. During that time, he was behind a big push into supermarkets, centered on a new line of sellthrough-priced films, marketed under the “Family Collection” label and beginning in January 1996 with The Indian in the Cupboard.
Reina joined what was then Columbia TriStar Home Video in 1990 as executive director of sales, managing a field office in Detroit. He joined the company after its acquisition of the television library and production assets of New World Entertainment, an independent film, television and home video company founded by ‘B’ movie legend Roger Corman.
Before joining New World, Reina worked in sales at WEA, the joint distribution network for Warner Bros. Records, Elektra Records and Atlantic Records.
Like many pioneering home video executives, Reina had a consumer packaged-goods background, having begun his career as a field sales representative at Gillette.
Bill Perrault, the former Columbia TriStar marketing chief, worked with Reina in the 1990s and reconnected with him a few years ago when Reina joined Perrault’s current company, Media Blue, as a consultant, working on business development.
“He was working six weeks ago, and he was pounding the pavement,” Perrault said. “John was always very jovial and positive, a real people person, a happy guy, and he really cared for his family and friends.”
Reina is survived by his wife, Paulette, and children and grandchildren.
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