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Eevin

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

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One of the most amazing box office runs of all time. It steadily built on terrific word-of-mouth. Rose 90% to $1.26m in its fourth weekend, in May, and didn't drop below $1m on a weekend again until the next February. It never hit #1, and yet managed to be the #5 film of 2002, alongside films like Spider-Man, Attack of the Clones, The Two Towers, and The Chamber of Secrets. It made $368m worldwide on a budget of just $5m. It made the equivalent of $358.3m domestically adjusted for inflation, and remains the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time by a lot. An absolutely unprecedented run, one we might never see again. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=mybigfatgreekwedding.htm

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Crazy, it didn't have a $10m w/e until it's 20th with a Labor Day aided $11.1m when it reached $78.848m. Then didn't have another w/e higher than that and still went on to $241+m

 

 

2002
Date
(click to view chart)
Rank Weekend
Gross
%
Change
Theaters Change / Avg. Gross-to-Date Week
#
Apr 19–21 20 $597,362 - 108 - $5,531 $597,362 1
Apr 26–28 16 $804,683 +34.7% 141 +33 $5,706 $1,626,751 2
May 3–5 16 $666,304 -17.2% 147 +6 $4,532 $2,567,045 3
May 10–12 11 $1,262,562 +89.5% 247 +100 $5,111 $4,112,413 4
May 17–19 10 $1,135,207 -10.1% 275 +28 $4,128 $5,669,706 5
May 24–26 11 $1,247,000
(Estimate)
+9.8% 260 -15 $4,796 $7,300,000
(Estimate)
6
May 24–27 11 $1,590,085 +40.1% 260 -15 $6,115 $7,642,884 6
May 31–Jun 2 11 $910,901 - 236 -24 $3,859 $8,863,863 7
Jun 7–9 12 $1,688,563 +85.4% 443 +207 $3,811 $11,002,602 8
Jun 14–16 12 $1,755,197 +3.9% 455 +12 $3,857 $13,642,098 9
Jun 21–23 14 $1,776,990 +1.2% 444 -11 $4,002 $16,318,140 10
Jun 28–30 13 $2,002,184 +12.7% 493 +49 $4,061 $19,340,988 11
Jul 5–7 11 $2,508,748 +25.3% 499 +6 $5,027 $23,576,174 12
Jul 12–14 12 $2,230,158 -11.1% 495 -4 $4,505 $27,031,170 13
Jul 19–21 14 $2,497,454 +12.0% 530 +35 $4,712 $30,862,103 14
Jul 26–28 10 $3,004,597 +20.3% 569 +39 $5,280 $35,417,552 15
Aug 2–4 9 $3,002,241 -0.1% 657 +88 $4,569 $40,172,975 16
Aug 9–11 8 $3,133,316 +4.4% 723 +66 $4,333 $45,063,979 17
Aug 16–18 6 $5,700,072 +81.9% 1,064 +341 $5,357 $52,777,170 18
Aug 23–25 4 $7,261,842 +27.4% 1,329 +265 $5,464 $63,690,730 19
Aug 30–Sep 1 2 $11,100,764 +52.9% 1,619 +290 $6,856 $78,848,210 20
Aug 30–Sep 2 2 $14,809,546 +104% 1,619 +290 $9,147 $82,556,992 20
Sep 6–8 2 $10,372,316 -6.6% 1,695 +76 $6,119 $95,824,732 21
Sep 13–15 2 $10,772,146 +3.9% 1,764 +69 $6,106 $110,443,668 22
Sep 20–22 3 $9,748,969 -9.5% 1,853 +89 $5,261 $124,052,987 23
Sep 27–29 4 $9,434,602 -3.2% 1,841 -12 $5,124 $136,628,662 24
Oct 4–6 4 $8,223,801 -12.8% 1,971 +130 $4,172 $147,717,828 25
Oct 11–13 5 $8,453,159 +2.8% 2,016 +45 $4,193 $158,954,054 26
Oct 18–20 4 $7,145,309 -15.5% 2,014 -2 $3,547 $169,292,979 27
Oct 25–27 5 $6,209,500 -13.1% 1,967 -47 $3,156 $177,698,447 28
Nov 1–3 6 $5,623,149 -9.4% 1,977 +10 $2,844 $185,244,976 29
Nov 8–10 6 $5,854,005 +4.1% 1,975 -2 $2,964 $192,857,165 30
Nov 15–17 6 $4,713,464 -19.5% 1,812 -163 $2,601 $199,574,370 31
Nov 22–24 8 $3,657,055 -22.4% 1,585 -227 $2,307 $204,520,221 32
Nov 29–Dec 1 11 $3,985,057 +9.0% 1,257 -328 $3,170 $210,585,352 33
Dec 6–8 13 $2,013,029 -49.5% 1,257 - $1,601 $213,263,148 34
Dec 13–15 12 $1,704,285 -15.3% 1,230 -27 $1,385 $215,640,319 35
Dec 20–22 13 $1,461,534 -14.2% 973 -257 $1,502 $217,765,974 36
Dec 27–29 12 $2,760,697 +88.9% 951 -22 $2,902 $222,517,469 37

2003
Date
(click to view chart)
Rank Weekend
Gross
%
Change
Theaters Change / Avg. Gross-to-Date Week
#
Jan 3–5 13 $2,661,106 -3.6% 1,194 +243 $2,228 $227,898,505 38
Jan 10–12 16 $2,102,547 -21.0% 1,212 +18 $1,734 $230,876,712 39
Jan 17–19 15 $2,173,330 +3.4% 1,171 -41 $1,855 $233,841,212 40
Jan 17–20 15 $2,601,083 +23.7% 1,171 -41 $2,221 $234,268,965 40
Jan 24–26 14 $1,704,430 -21.6% 1,143 -28 $1,491 $236,448,697 41
Jan 31–Feb 2 15 $1,538,527 -9.7% 1,076 -67 $1,429 $238,540,872 42
Feb 7–9 17 $1,003,360 -34.8% 971 -105 $1,033 $239,952,321 43
Feb 14–16 24 $475,282 -52.6% 533 -438 $891 $240,686,319 44
Feb 14–17 25 $531,331 -47.0% 533 -438 $996 $240,742,368 44
Feb 21–23 29 $214,809 -54.8% 353 -180 $608 $241,055,385 45
Feb 28–Mar 2 40 $130,928 -39.0% 260 -93 $503 $241,250,669 46
Mar 7–9 49 $71,321 -45.5% 170 -90 $419 $241,356,536 47
Mar 14–16 70 $20,903 -70.7% 74 -96 $282 $241,406,779 48
Mar 21–23 80 $9,651 -53.8% 36 -38 $268 $241,423,860 49
Mar 28–30 96 $5,587 -42.1% 21 -15 $266 $241,433,282 50
Apr 4–6 133 $1,696 -69.6% 6 -15 $282 $241,437,427 51
Apr 11–13 146 $27 -98.4% 1 -5 $27 $241,438,208 52
Italics indicate four day weekend.
Edited by TalismanRing
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3 minutes ago, John Marston said:

 

 

That rule should be changed to until 2010 or something 

But that's not really classic though

 

The "rules" that films were constrained in from mid-2000s at the very latest) onward were different from before then.

 

No longer did films have large multipliers on the regular, tentpoles became more dominant, bigger and bigger bombs have been occurring, star power's role in a film's success has been altered, etc.

 

It was truly a different era

Edited by franfar
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19 minutes ago, franfar said:

But that's not really classic though

 

The "rules" that films were constrained in from mid-2000s at the very latest) onward were different from before then.

 

No longer did films have large multipliers on the regular, tentpoles became more dominant, bigger and bigger bombs have been occurring, star power's role in a film's success has been altered, etc.

 

It was truly a different era

 

Some exceptions IMO should be ok

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2 hours ago, franfar said:

Ofc. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was truly a phenomenon that won't be repeated in the near future

 

It's the kind of long crazy run we can sometimes still find in Japan - as seen with No Name but even that originally opened wide and much bigger and has the momentum of an acclaimed movie which BFGW didn't.

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11 hours ago, TalismanRing said:

 

It's the kind of long crazy run we can sometimes still find in Japan - as seen with No Name but even that originally opened wide and much bigger and has the momentum of an acclaimed movie which BFGW didn't.

 

MBFGW just seemed to capture the zeitgeist in a big way. It's pretty much impossible to find movies making over 1M per weekend in their 9th month of release now. 

 

It it was definitely a moment in time though, the TV show "My big fat Greek life" came out just a year later and lasted only 6 episodes, and none of the cast went on to bigger things either.

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this is one run to this day I still don't fully fathom :P 

 

I liked it at the time and I can see why people enjoyed it too.  I get that part, but yeah like some already said in here, it had to be mostly timing.  Yes it's usually that way for most movies, but I think it is probably the second biggest reason this did so well.  The first is that obviously people liked the film.

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19 minutes ago, 75live said:

this is one run to this day I still don't fully fathom :P 

 

I liked it at the time and I can see why people enjoyed it too.  I get that part, but yeah like some already said in here, it had to be mostly timing.  Yes it's usually that way for most movies, but I think it is probably the second biggest reason this did so well.  The first is that obviously people liked the film.

 

I wonder how much the post 9/11 environment contributed as well. This was perfect escapism at the time, I assume.

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1 minute ago, grim22 said:

 

I wonder how much the post 9/11 environment contributed as well. This was perfect escapism at the time, I assume.

Pretty much. I already mentioned in the Spider-Man thread that people wanted escape at that time, which no doubt boosted a handful of box office totals.

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This is still the most insane box office run I've followed. I remember seeing ads for it in the Seattle papers that kept on touting its continued staying power during the summer, and around August, it occurred to me that it might be on the verge of breaking out when I realized that it was already August and the film had been playing at one of my local theatres since June 14 - whereas virtually every low-budget art film last one week (or maybe two if it was unusually successful). It ultimately ended up playing at that same local theatre until February 13 - the week the film was released on video and DVD. :blink:

 

Really, I think the fact that says it all is that it had multiple weekends in wide release in which it average more money per location than it did in its first weekend of limited release.

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Yeah, it was only a couple a weeks ago that it lost its record of highest grossing film not to hit number one to Sing.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if having 23 weekends that increased from their previous weekend isn't also a record too. But it's possible something like ET maybe have managed that. 

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I completely understand its run because I was married to a Portuguese woman at the time and I could relate to and understand most of the observations and jokes in the film.  I was the munga cake white guy married to a European woman and her family.  I guess you just have to be in that situation to fully get it.

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2 hours ago, baumer said:

I completely understand its run because I was married to a Portuguese woman at the time and I could relate to and understand most of the observations and jokes in the film.  I was the munga cake white guy married to a European woman and her family.  I guess you just have to be in that situation to fully get it.

 

Yes, it spoke to any immigrant family or those who married into them -- regardless of backgrounds. And there are a LOT of immigrant families here. 

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On 2/4/2017 at 10:35 PM, John Marston said:

 

 

That rule should be changed to until 2010 or something 

 

Do you really consider Inglorious Bastards or District 9 classic runs though? Yeah a lot of movies did well and had great runs that year (Up, Hangover, Star Trek, Taken, etc) but they are still relatively recent and the only instant "classic" run of the year is Avatar which is still discussed by many on the main boards today.

 

I'd say this is better to stay pre-2000 until the next three or four years. Lots of good runs before that period to talk about.

 

(just using 2009 as an example, since technically that would be considered acceptable under that rule)

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