By now, the Cinderella story behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding is probably more familiar than the plot of the hit movie itself. A $5-million comedy, starring an unknown Greek-Canadian actress named Nia Vardalos, is released without fanfare in April 2002 and outlasts a summer’s worth of Hollywood blockbusters, becoming the most successful indie movie of all time and one of the most profitable movies (in terms of its rate of return on investment) ever made.
In December it has crossed the previously unimaginable $200-million mark for United States box-office gross. It has been similarly successful in non-American territories, having earned $20-million in Britain alone since its release there in September.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding has broken several box-office records and is on its way to breaking more. It has far surpassed the $140-million earned by previous indie champ The Blair Witch Project in 1999. Its 4 000% return ranks it, with Star Wars and Gone with the Wind, among the most profitable movies of all time. In the US it’s the fourth-highest grossing movie of 2002 and is closing in on Austin Powers in Goldmember and Signs, although it will probably be overtaken by the holiday season’s Harry Potter, James Bond and Lord of the Rings movies.
The person widely credited with landing Vardalos a movie deal after seeing her perform her autobiographical one-woman show was a Greek-American actress in the audience named Rita Wilson, aka Mrs Tom Hanks. She got her husband to set up the film at his company, Playtone (run day-to-day by Gary Goetzman), which shopped it around to financiers and distributors on the strength of the Hanks-Wilson seal of approval.
As it turned out, Vardalos’s script filled an empty niche. It’s axiomatic that Hollywood has forgotten how to make effervescent, funny, sweet romantic comedies, unless Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan are there to provide the fizz. Except for My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Sweet Home Alabama, there’s nothing playing in US cinemas now, nor has there been for most of the past seven months, that qualifies. Also, despite Hollywood thinking that only young people go to the movies, there are plenty of seniors who would love to see a warm, traditional, comforting comedy, and who proved it by coming out in droves to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
There was pressure to make My Big Fat Greek Wedding conform to Hollywood romantic comedy standards, but Vardalos stuck to her guns.
She told the Washington Post she received offers to make the film, but only if she cast someone more famous than herself in the lead or changed her family’s ethnicity. One producer told her: ”Here’s a big cheque. We’ll make it Italian and get Marisa Tomei to play the lead.” Vardalos recalled: ”I said no. I just thought it was blasphemous to turn my family into anything else.” That strategy also worked 26 years ago for an unknown Italian-American actor who insisted on starring in his own boxing script, a guy by the name of Sylvester Stallone.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding also used unorthodox methods to build word-of-mouth. The Blair Witch Project did this through a clever Internet campaign. Vardalos and distributor IFC Films did it with shoe leather, with the star travelling town to town and making appearances at Greek organisations and bridal shows. The film also benefited from good timing: when producers made a deal to show the film on aeroplanes by August, they never dreamed it would still be in theatres. So the Greek community, the marriage-minded, and business travellers all spread the word.
That so many different groups of people have enjoyed the movie shows that Vardalos succeeded in creating something universal. Despite My Big Fat Greek Wedding‘s ethnic specificity, its story of comical clashes between families is something everyone who’s ever planned a wedding can recognise. So is its affection for families trying to hold on to their traditions and ethnic roots. That’s typical, not only in a country like the US where virtually everyone is a descendant of immigrants, but overseas as well. A few weeks ago the success of the movie landed Vardalos a dinner with Queen Elizabeth, who recalled her own big fat Greek wedding, complete with a bridegroom of Greek ancestry and dozens of cousins.
As for Vardalos, she gets to write her own ticket — literally. In addition to starring in the upcoming CBS sitcom version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was in the works even before the movie was released, she’s writing and starring in another film comedy, this one for Disney, called Connie and Carla Do LA. Plus, the woman who sold her screen-play for a nominal $500 and earned just $150 000 for her starring role now stands to earn upwards of $10-million as her percentage of the My Big Fat Greek Wedding profits. And if that’s not enough, there’s even Oscar talk for Vardalos in the best adapted screenplay and best actress categories. After all, the Oscar voters love a good Cinderella story. — Â