Greek
Wedding Lessons
Typically
I don’t comment on individual movies. It gets me into
trouble. But I can’t resist this time. You’ll
pardon me, I hope, because I have a big soft spot for Greek
weddings.
I do
not mean to ignore the many other wonderful box office successes
we’ve seen this year. Our studio partners have produced,
marketed and distributed to us a series of diverse, commercially
viable films that have generated the strongest admissions
figures since the 1950s and the biggest box office totals
in cinema history. (Special kudos, by the way, to Jeff Blake
and his colleagues at Sony for the astounding $1.3 billion
their studio racked up during the year’s first eight
months.)
But
on the independent scene, the success of “My Big Fat
Greek Wedding” provides some interesting lessons:
Sometimes,
You Can Start Small and Grow Big – Contemporary
wisdom on film exhibition suggests that successful movies
must open with a bang – but too often we’ve seen
a major release debut at 3,000 or more of our theatres,
only to suffer an admissions decline of 40 or 50 percent
on its second weekend. “Wedding,” by contrast,
opened at 103 theatres in April and has slowly grown to
more than 1,600 locations in the months since. Indeed, as
I write this, the picture’s most recent frame (Labor
Day weekend) has proven its biggest to date, with a very
high per screen average, after 20 weeks of release.
Convention
Exposure Can Help – As the industry gathers for
another fine ShowEast
in Orlando, perhaps we’ll spot the next “Wedding.”
Remember that producer Rita Wilson brought the picture to
ShoWest.
Few of our members had heard of the film by the first week
in March. But most exhibitors who saw it in Vegas were impressed.
Watch
Those Per-Screen Averages – We read and talk constantly
about total box office receipts. To me, total admissions
matter more. But even more important, in many ways, is a
film’s per-screen average. The shared communal experience
remains one of the chief attributes of theatrical exhibition.
Full houses enhance that experience, particularly with a
romantic comedy. IFC’s Bob Berney, who oversaw the
release of “Wedding,” prevented the film from
getting too wide too early to keep it sold out and to keep
the word-of-mouth building.
Word-of-Mouth
Still Matters – “The Blair Witch Project”
perhaps notwithstanding, word-of-mouth is almost impossible
to manufacture. A proper release schedule can enhance buzz,
but only if the film is good. Patrons find much to love
in “Wedding,” and they talk about it with their
family and friends. (It helped that many Greeks have large
families and talk about everything – but word on “Wedding”
eventually spread way beyond the Greeks.)
Marketing
Isn’t Just TV – Back in March, Paula Silver
of Beyond The Box (a promotional firm growing famous for
its atypical promotions) was handing out “Greek Wedding”
T-shirts and making announcements at the annual Greek Folk
Dance Festival in Spokane. The film benefited from many
other grass-roots promotional efforts within and outside
the Greek community. A substantial e-mail campaign also
built momentum for the opening. Later, after some early
signs of success, the bulk of the advertising campaign came
into play. Exhibitors often participate in promotional efforts,
and made no exception with “Wedding.”
Diversified
Patrons Need Diversified Content – Beyond “Wedding”
and Universal’s “About a Boy,” 2002 hasn’t
exactly been teeming with warm-hearted romantic comedies.
We’ve had comedy fare for families and teens, but little
for adults. Maybe the times just required a feel-good picture.
“Wedding” offered real people in character-driven
scenes encountering issues common to many families of many
different ethnicities. With a domestic take of $80 million
and growing, it has become – by eclipsing the $53 million
garnered by 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”
– the highest-grossing independently produced romantic
comedy ever.
Movies
Don’t Always Need Big Names – “Greek
Wedding” costar John Corbett is best known for his
work as a supporting player on TV’s “Northern
Exposure” and “Sex in the City.” Nia Vardalos,
the film’s star and screenwriter, was virtually unknown
save to those who knew her from her improv work with Second
City. When Ms. Vardalos approached potential producers early
in the process, a number of them wanted to cast a bigger
name in her role; she had the guts to say no.
I know
that the commercial formulas of the bigger pictures are
tried and true. And I certainly do not mean to suggest that
“Greek Wedding” offers us the success strategy
for any more than a handful of coming attractions. But I
am happy that we have that handful. For Ms. Vardalos I say,
“efharisto para poli.” 
