My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos. The film stars Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone. It follows a young Greek-American woman who falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoel Zwick
Written byNia Vardalos
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJeffrey Jur
Edited byMia Goldman
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • IFC Films (United States)
  • Equinox Films (Canada)
Release dates
  • February 22, 2002 (2002-02-22) (AFM)
  • April 19, 2002 (2002-04-19) (United States)
Running time
95 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • Canada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[1]
Box office$368.7 million[1]

An international co-production between the United States and Canada, the film premiered at the American Film Market on February 22, 2002, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 19, 2002, by IFC Films. It received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $368.7 million worldwide against its $5 million budget. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 75th Academy Awards and for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Vardalos at the 60th Golden Globe Awards.

The film spawned a franchise, which inspired the 2003 sitcom My Big Fat Greek Life and the 2016 sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. A third film, titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, was released in theaters on September 8, 2023.[2]

Plot

Thirty-year-old Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos is a member of a large, loud, intrusive Greek family that only wants her to get married and have children. Frumpy and meek, she works in her family's Chicago restaurant, "Dancing Zorba's", but longs to do something more with her life. While working one day, a school teacher named Ian Miller comes into the restaurant, and Toula develops a crush on him. That evening, Toula tells her parents that she wants to go to college to learn about computers, but her father, Gus, becomes emotional, claiming Toula wants to leave him. Her mother, Maria, comforts Toula and convinces Gus to agree to Toula's idea.

As the weeks pass, Toula gains more confidence and changes her image, switching her thick-framed glasses for contact lenses, styling her hair, and wearing makeup and brighter clothes that show off her figure. She sees a notice for a course on computers and tourism and tells her Aunt Voula, who owns a travel agency, that she could apply what she learns in the course to Voula's business. Voula agrees, and she and Maria slyly convince Gus to agree as well.

Toula's happiness working at the travel agency catches Ian's attention and he asks her to dinner. On their date, Toula confesses to Ian that her family owns Dancing Zorba's, and Ian suddenly recognizes her; contrary to Toula's fear that he would lose interest in her, Ian reaffirms his fondness for her. They continue dating and fall in love.

Knowing her family would not approve of her dating a non-Greek, Toula lies that she is taking a pottery class to see Ian. However, Toula's lie is exposed when a family friend sees Toula and Ian kissing in a parking lot. Gus is furious that Ian did not ask his permission to date Toula, even though they are grown adults. Gus refuses to let them continue seeing each other because Ian is not Greek, but Toula and Ian continue dating anyway. Gus introduces Toula to single friends of his own, to no avail.

Ian proposes marriage and Toula accepts. Maria tells Gus that he must accept their marriage, but Gus remains upset because Ian is not a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. To get the family to accept him, Ian agrees to be baptized into the church. The Portokalos family does finally accept him but constantly inserts themselves into the wedding planning, designing ugly bridesmaid's dresses and misspelling Ian's mother's name on their wedding invitations. Ian's quiet, conservative parents meet the entire family during a loud and extravagant Greek family dinner and are overwhelmed by the experience, frustrating Gus. Toula worries about whether her father has accepted Ian.

At the wedding reception, Gus gives a heartfelt speech focusing on how the differences in the newlyweds' backgrounds do not matter. He and Maria then surprise Toula and Ian with a house as a wedding gift. As the two families dance together, Toula narrates that while her family is indeed loud, odd, and somewhat dramatic, she knows they love her and will always be there for her. Six years later, Toula and Ian leave their house to walk their daughter to Greek school. The house is then revealed to be right next door to Gus and Maria's house.

Cast

Production

Development

My Big Fat Greek Wedding started as a one-woman play written by and starring Vardalos, performed for six weeks at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles in the summer of 1997.[5] Vardalos later jokingly said that she only wrote the play "to get a better agent."[6] The play was based on Vardalos's own family in Winnipeg in Canada and on her experience marrying a non-Greek man (actor Ian Gomez).[6] The play was popular and was sold out for much of its run, in part due to Vardalos's marketing it across Greek Orthodox churches in the area.[7] Several Hollywood executives and celebrities saw it, including actress Rita Wilson, who is herself of Greek origin;[7] Wilson convinced her husband, actor Tom Hanks, to see it as well.

Vardalos began meeting various executives about making a film version of the play and began writing a screenplay as well. However, the meetings proved fruitless because the executives insisted on making changes that they felt would make the film more marketable, to which Vardalos objected. These included changing the plot, getting a known actress in the lead role (Marisa Tomei was one name mentioned),[7] and changing the family's ethnicity to Hispanic.[6] Two months after the play's initial run ended, Hanks's production company, Playtone, contacted Vardalos about producing a film based on her vision for it; they also agreed to remount the play in early 1998, this time at LA's Globe Theatre.[5] Hanks later said that casting Vardalos in the lead role "brings a huge amount of integrity to the piece because it's Nia's version of her own life and her own experience. I think that shows through on the screen and people recognize it."[6]

In 2000, while in Toronto doing pre-production for the film, Vardalos and Playtone producer Gary Goetzman overheard actor John Corbett (who was in town shooting the film Serendipity) at a bar, telling a friend of his about having read the script for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and being upset that he couldn't make the auditions. Vardalos and Goetzman approached Corbett and offered him the part of Ian Miller on the spot, which he accepted.[6]

Filming
Parts of the film were shot in Greektown, Toronto

Despite being based on life in the Greek community of Winnipeg, the film was set in Chicago and shot in both Toronto and Chicago. Toronto Metropolitan University and the Greektown neighborhood feature prominently in the film. The home used to depict Gus and Maria Portokalos's residence (as well as the home bought next door at the end of the film for Toula and Ian) is located on Glenwood Crescent just off O'Connor Drive in the Toronto suburb of East York. The real home representing the Portokalos' residence has most of the external ornamentation that was shown in the film. Also, some minor parts of the movie were shot at Jarvis Collegiate Institute in Toronto.

Principal photography began on May 9, 2001, and ended on June 30, 2001.

Release

After a February 2002 premiere, it was initially released in the United States via a limited release on April 19, 2002, before receiving a wider release worldwide over the summer, including a wide release in the United States on August 2.

Reception

Box office

My Big Fat Greek Wedding became a sleeper hit and grew steadily from its limited release. Despite never hitting the number one spot for a box office weekend and being an independent film with a $5 million budget, it ultimately grossed over $368.7 million worldwide, becoming one of the top romantic films of the 21st century.[8][9] It was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2002 in the United States and Canada,[10] with USD$241,438,208, and the highest-grossing romantic comedy domestically in history.[11][12] Domestically, it also held the record for the highest-grossing film never having been number one on the weekly North American box office charts[13] until the 2016 release of the animated film Sing.[14] However, adjusted for inflation, the gross of My Big Fat Greek Wedding was still higher, equivalent to $322 million in 2016. The film is among the most profitable of all time, with a 6150% return on an (also inflation-adjusted) cost of $6 million to produce.[15]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 130 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Though it sometimes feels like a television sitcom, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is good-hearted, lovable, and delightfully eccentric, with a sharp script and lead performance from Nia Vardalos."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

Accolades
List of awards and nominations
AwardCategoryRecipientsResult
Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay Nia Vardalos Nominated
Critics' Choice Awards Best Acting Ensemble My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nominated
Best Writer Nia Vardalos Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nominated
Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nia Vardalos Nominated
MTV Movie Awards Best Breakthrough Female Performance Nia Vardalos Nominated
People's Choice Awards Favorite Motion Picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nominated
Favorite Comedy Motion Picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding Won
Producers Guild of America Best Theatrical Motion Picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nominated
Writers Guild of America Award Best Original Screenplay Nia Vardalos Nominated

10th-anniversary edition

In 2012, a 10th anniversary edition of the film was released via DVD and Blu-ray by HBO. The edition contains a digital copy of the film and features deleted scenes as well as a 30-minute retrospective with Vardalos and Corbett.

Lawsuit

The cast (with the exception of Vardalos, who had a separate deal), as well as Hanks' production company, Playtone, later sued the studio for their part of the profits, charging that Gold Circle Films was engaging in so-called "Hollywood accounting" practices.[20]

Legacy
Main article: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (franchise)

Television series
Main article: My Big Fat Greek Life

The film inspired the brief 2003 TV series My Big Fat Greek Life, with most of the major characters played by the same actors, with the exception of Steven Eckholdt replacing Corbett as the husband. Corbett had already signed on to the TV series Lucky. He was scheduled to appear as the best friend of his replacement's character, but the show was cancelled before he appeared. The show received poor reviews from critics noting the random character entrances and serious plot "adjustments" that did not match the film.

The seven episodes from the series are available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, whose TV studio division produced the show.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
Main article: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

In a 2009 interview for her film My Life in Ruins, asked about a possible sequel for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Vardalos said that she had an idea for a sequel and had started writing it, hinting that, like Ruins, the film would be set in Greece.[21]

Asked about a sequel again in a November 2012 interview, she said:

Well, actually, yes. And it's only now that I've become open to the idea. Over the years, I've heard from everybody about what the sequel should be. People next to me at Starbucks would say, 'Hey, let me tell you my idea,' and I'd be like, 'Hey, I'm just trying to get a cup of coffee.' I never thought much about it. But then when John (Corbett) and I recently sat down to do that interview (for the 10th anniversary edition), we laughed so hard through the whole thing. It made me think that it's time. He said, "Come on, write something, will you?" And I now think I will. We have such an easy chemistry together. And we have chemistry because we never 'did it.' That's the surefire way to kill chemistry in a scene. You have to make sure your actors don't 'do it' off-screen. If they don't 'do it,' then they'll have chemistry on camera.[22]

On May 27, 2014, various news and media outlets reported that a sequel was in the works. Nia Vardalos later confirmed this via Twitter, and she also has written a script for the film.[23][24] The first trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was aired on NBC's The Today Show on November 11, 2015[25] and it was released on March 25, 2016,[26][27] to negative critical reception and modest box office success.[28][29][30]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)
Main article: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

In late June 2016, Vardalos said that she had not written a third film, but was open to the possibility.[31] On April 8, 2021, it was announced that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 was in development as an independent film written by Vardalos, who would also reprise her role as Toula. The project was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, as production could not begin until the studio was able to obtain insurance for its crew.[32][33] In October 2021, Vardalos confirmed that the script for the third film had been completed.[34]

On May 15, 2022, it was announced that filming would take place throughout Greece that summer, with large portions being shot on Corfu from July 5 to August 3.[35] On June 22, Vardalos was announced as the film's director.[36] Principal photography commenced on June 22, 2022, in Athens[37] and wrapped on August 10, 2022.[38]

The film is a joint production of Playtone, Gold Circle Films, HBO Films, and Focus Features[36][39] and is scheduled to be released on September 8, 2023.[2][40][41][42] It will be dedicated to the memory of Michael Constantine, who died on August 31, 2021, at the age of 94.[43] The film's plot follows the Portokalos family on a trip to Greece for a family reunion[44] and will feature another wedding.[38]

References
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