My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a 2002 romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos. The movie features a group of actors, including Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone. The story is about a young Greek-American woman who falls in love with a man who is not Greek. She faces challenges in convincing her family to accept him, while also learning more about her Greek heritage and cultural background.

The film was created as a partnership between the United States and Canada. It was first shown at the American Film Market on February 22, 2002, and later released in U.S. theaters on April 19, 2002, by IFC Films. Critics gave the film positive reviews, and it became a financial success, earning over $368.7 million worldwide, which is much more than its $5 million budget. This made it the ninth most successful film of 2002.

At the 60th Golden Globe Awards, the film received two nominations: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (for Nia Vardalos). It was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 75th Academy Awards. Nia Vardalos won the award for Best Debut Performance at the 18th Independent Spirit Awards.

The film led to a series of movies and a TV show. These include the 2003 sitcom My Big Fat Greek Life and the 2016 sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. A third film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, was released in theaters on September 8, 2023.

Plot

In Chicago, 30-year-old Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos is part of a large, loud, and demanding Greek family. Her father, Gus, wants her to marry and have children quickly. Toula lives with her parents and works at their restaurant, Dancing Zorba's, but she wants to become independent.

One day, Toula meets Ian Miller, a high school teacher, at Dancing Zorba's. Later that evening, she tells her parents she wants to take computer classes at a local college to help run the restaurant. Gus becomes upset, thinking she wants to leave him. Toula's mother, Maria, comforts her and persuades Gus to agree.

Over time, Toula gains confidence and changes her appearance, replacing her thick glasses with contact lenses, styling her hair, and wearing makeup and brighter clothes. After seeing a flyer for a class about computers and tourism, she suggests to her aunt Voula that she could take the class and use what she learns to help Voula's travel agency. Voula agrees, and she and Maria secretly convince Gus to support the idea.

While working at the travel agency, Ian notices Toula and asks her out for dinner. During their date, Toula tells Ian her family owns Dancing Zorba's. He remembers her and remains interested, despite Toula's fear he might think she was unattractive before. They continue dating and fall in love.

Toula lies about taking a pottery class to hide her relationship with Ian, as her family would disapprove of her dating a non-Greek. However, a family friend sees them kissing, and Gus becomes angry, forbidding them from seeing each other. Despite Gus's attempts to match Toula with Greek men, she continues dating Ian. Toula's brother, Niko, tells her that she inspired him to take art classes at night.

Ian proposes marriage, and Toula accepts. Maria tells Gus he must respect Toula's choice, but Gus is upset because Ian is not part of the Greek Orthodox Church. Ian agrees to be baptized into the church to gain Toula's family's approval.

Toula's family often interferes with wedding plans, creating unflattering bridesmaid dresses and misspelling Ian's mother's name on invitations. Ian's quiet and reserved parents meet Toula's family during a loud and extravagant dinner. Gus is frustrated by their behavior, but Maria reassures Toula that she and Gus moved to the United States so Toula and her siblings could have freedom they did not have as children.

At the wedding, Gus gives a heartfelt speech about how differences in the couple's backgrounds do not matter. He and Maria reveal they have bought a house for Toula and Ian. As the families dance together, Toula realizes her family, though loud and unconventional, loves her and will always support her.

Six years later, Toula and Ian live in the house Gus and Maria bought them, which is next to the Portokalos home. The couple walks their daughter, Paris, to her first day of Greek school.

Production

The play My Big Fat Greek Wedding began as a one-person show that lasted 45 minutes. It was written by and starred Nia Vardalos. The show first developed in the HBO Workshop, then was tested in Chicago, Toronto, and Europe. It later performed at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Los Angeles in August 1997 and moved to ACME Comedy Theatre, still as a workshop.

The one-person show was based on Vardalos’s own family in Winnipeg, Canada, and her experience marrying a non-Greek man, actor Ian Gomez. The workshop was popular and sold out for much of its run. Part of its success came from Vardalos promoting it across Greek Orthodox churches in the area. Several Hollywood executives and celebrities saw the show, including actress Rita Wilson, who has Greek heritage. Wilson encouraged her husband, actor Tom Hanks, to see it as well.

Vardalos began meeting Hollywood executives about making a film version of the monologue and started writing a screenplay. However, the meetings did not lead to progress because the executives wanted changes they believed would make the film more marketable. These changes included altering the plot, casting a well-known actress in the lead role (such as Marisa Tomei), and changing the family’s ethnicity to Hispanic. Two months after the monologue’s initial run ended, Hanks’s production company, Playtone, contacted Vardalos about making a film based on her vision. They also agreed to remount the one-person play in January 1998 at the Globe Playhouse in West Hollywood for a three-night-a-week run.

In 2000, while in Toronto preparing for the film, Vardalos and Playtone producer Gary Goetzman heard actor John Corbett, who was in town filming Serendipity, talk about reading the script and being upset he could not audition. Vardalos and Goetzman offered Corbett the role of Ian Miller on the spot, and he accepted.

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.”

Although the film is based on life in the Greek community of Winnipeg, it was set in Chicago and filmed in both Toronto and Chicago. Toronto Metropolitan University and the Greektown neighborhood are shown in the film. The home used to depict Gus and Maria Portokalos’s residence (and the home bought next door for Toula and Ian) is located on Glenwood Crescent near O’Connor Drive in East York, Toronto. The real home used in the film kept most of its exterior design until 2021. Some scenes were also filmed at Jarvis Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Principal photography began on May 9, 2001, and ended on June 30, 2001. Locations from the film include:

• Dancing Zorba’s (exterior) – 132 Simcoe Street [demolished in 2002]
• Portakalos house – 73 Glenwood Crescent
• Toula’s School – Westway Junior School
• Olympus Travel Agency – 439 Danforth Avenue
• Harry S. Truman College – Rogers Communications Centre
• Waterfront date – Amsterdam Bridge
• Ian’s apartment – Upper Canada Apartments, 5 Lonsdale Road
• Miller house – 16 Amelia Street
• Ian’s school – Jarvis Collegiate Institute
• Greek Orthodox Church – Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral (exterior); St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church (interior)
• Aphrodite’s Palace – 702 Pape Avenue (exterior); Ellas Banquet Hall, 35 Danforth Road (interior) [demolished in 2016]
• Ian and Toula’s house – 75 Glenwood Crescent

Release

After its first showing in February 2002, the film was first shown in the United States with a limited release on April 19, 2002. It then had a wider release around the world during the summer, including a wide release in the United States on August 2.

Reception

My Big Fat Greek Wedding became a popular movie that gained more attention over time after its limited release. Even though it never reached the top spot in weekly box office rankings and had a small budget of $5 million, it earned more than $368.7 million worldwide. It became one of the most successful romantic films of the 21st century. In 2002, it was the fifth highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada, earning $241,438,208. It also holds the record for the highest-grossing romantic comedy in U.S. history. However, it never reached the top spot on the weekly North American box office charts until the 2016 film Sing. When adjusted for changes in money value over time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding still earned about $322 million in 2016. The film is one of the most profitable ever made, with a return of 6,150% on an inflation-adjusted production cost of $6 million.

By December 2003, the movie’s video sold 9.85 million copies, earning over $164.8 million in profit.

On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 130 critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average score of 6.7 out of 10. The site’s summary says the movie is "good-hearted, lovable, and delightfully eccentric, with a sharp script and strong performance from Nia Vardalos." Metacritic, which averages reviews based on weight, gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, meaning it received "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences who watched the film in theaters gave it an average grade of "A−" on a scale from A+ to F, according to CinemaScore.

• 2008: Nominated for AFI’s 10 Top 10 as a Romantic Comedy Film

In 2012, a 10th anniversary version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by HBO. This edition included a digital copy of the film, deleted scenes, and a 30-minute interview with Nia Vardalos and John Corbett.

Lawsuits

In 2007, the cast (except for Vardalos, who had a different agreement) and Hanks' production company, Playtone, filed a lawsuit against the studio. They claimed that Gold Circle Films used "Hollywood accounting" methods, which involved reporting only $287 million in total earnings, including box office sales, television rights, and video sales, even though the film earned $370 million just from box office sales. This followed a 2003 lawsuit where the original producers, MPH Entertainment Inc., sued Playtone and Gold Circle Films. One of the defendants in that case stated that the film had a loss of $20 million, despite reports of $600 million in total earnings from different sources.

Legacy

The movie inspired a short 2003 TV show called My Big Fat Greek Life, with most main characters played by the same actors. However, Steven Eckholdt took over the role of the husband, replacing Corbett. Corbett had already agreed to appear in another TV show called Lucky, where he was scheduled to play the best friend of his replacement’s character. The show Lucky was cancelled before Corbett could appear. Critics gave My Big Fat Greek Life poor reviews, pointing out that characters appeared unexpectedly and the story had major changes that did not match the film.

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

In 2009, during an interview about her movie My Life in Ruins, Vardalos mentioned she had an idea for a sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding and had begun writing it, suggesting the film would be set in Greece, similar to My Life in Ruins.

In November 2012, she said again that she was considering a sequel. In 2014, news outlets reported that a sequel was being planned. Vardalos confirmed this on Twitter and shared that she had written a script for the film. The first trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was shown on NBC’s The Today Show in November 2015. The film was released on March 25, 2016, but received mostly negative reviews and had limited success at the box office.

In late June 2016, Vardalos said she had not yet written a third film but was open to the idea. On April 8, 2021, it was announced that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 was being developed as an independent film written by Vardalos, who would also reprise her role as Toula. The project was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as production could not begin until the studio secured insurance for its crew. In October 2021, Vardalos confirmed the script for the third film was completed.

On May 15, 2022, it was announced that filming would take place in Greece during the summer, with many scenes shot on the island of Corfu from July 5 to August 3. On June 22, 2022, Vardalos was named the film’s director. Principal photography began on June 22, 2022, in Athens and ended on August 10, 2022.

The film was produced by Playtone, Gold Circle Films, HBO Films, and Focus Features and was released on September 8, 2023. The film was dedicated to the memory of Michael Constantine, who passed away on August 31, 2021, at the age of 94. The story follows the Portokalos family as they travel to Greece for a family reunion after the death of Toula’s father, Gus.