The third film about Toula Portokalos and her nosy Greek American family shows why this franchise endures, even without another massive hit. In theaters Sept. 8.
Even in a world where sequels to successful movies are a foregone conclusion, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 still feels like a surprise. The story that began with 2002’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding, about young Greek American woman Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos), her extremely Greek family, and the hijinks that ensue when she gets involved with a non-Greek man (John Corbett) did not scream “franchise.” And yet it became one, not by repeating the success of the first movie — which still eludes the series — but by centering on a family just quirky enough to feel real, with a light enough touch to keep them from getting too complicated.
On the surface, at least, Vardalos’ movie grew into a franchise for the usual reason: money. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is still the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, by a wide margin. Later installments (the aborted 2003 CBS sitcom sequel/spinoff My Big Fat Greek Life and the 2016 sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2) weren’t cultural phenomena in the same way. But Vardalos, who wrote both films and finally got to direct the new one, has found enough there to return once more in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. It isn’t so much a movie as a reunion, only compelling if you’re fond of this family and find Vardalos’ affection for them endearing. I’m fond of them myself — in the same way I’m fond of, say, Looney Tunes characters. The comedy is in their consistency, not in novelty.
The My Big Fat Greek Wedding movies traffic in broad comedy and thin characters, which served the first film well. My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s success was the kind of slow burn that’s rare these days, in the era of narrow theatrical windows that quickly close so movies can rush to streaming or on-demand services. The film grossed a mere $597,362 in its first weekend, and word of mouth slowly transformed it into a sensational sleeper hit. It even garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay at a time when romantic comedies had all but disappeared from awards races. The movie was, by almost every imaginable metric, a phenomenon.
A big reason My Big Fat Greek Wedding connected with audiences came down to the fact that it was so different from other popular romantic comedies, while also hewing extremely close to the rom-com formula.
