A Big Fat Indie Success Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the Making and Marketing of a "Hollywood" Movie
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Faculty Publications Department of Communication Summer 2004 A Big Fat Indie Success Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the Making and Marketing of a "Hollywood" Movie Alisa Perren Georgia State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_facpub Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Perren, Alisa, "A Big Fat Indie Success Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the Making and Marketing of a "Hollywood" Movie" (2004). Communication Faculty Publications. 3. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_facpub/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Big Fat Indie Success Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the Making and Marketing of a "Hollywood" Movie ALISA PERREN DURING THE SUMMER AND FALL OF 2002, neWS- a number of inaccuracies and misperceptions papers and magazines across North America about the operations ofthe contemporary prominently featured articles about the surpris- media industries. These stories have had the ing box office performance of My Big Fat Greek effect of constructing—and reinforcing—certain Wedding. The publications wrote ofa low-bud- mythologies about the dichotomies between get romantic comedy—a movie with neither "Hollywood" and "independent" films, as well Hollywood stars nor special effects—that defied as between the film and television industries. the odds to become the highest grossing in- These dichotomies, in turn, obscure the inter- dependent film of all time. According to these connectedness and fluidity within the contem- sources, the film reputedly "sent a message" porary film and television industries. to Hollywood, challenging the way the industry In this article, I dissect three primary claims does business (Holden Ei). Whether the publi- made in mainstream publications about My cation was People or the New York Times or the Big Fat Greek Wedding. First, by examining Winnipeg Free Press, the story was shockingly the film's production, distribution, and ex- similar: a young woman, writer-actress Nia hibition history, I complicate assertions that Vardalos—and a tittle movie—defied the odds the film can be labeled "the most successful to make good (and make money). This was the independent of all time." Second, I challenge American dream in action. the assumption that films such as My Big Fat As attractive and compelling as this story Greek Wedding are rarely made anymore by may be, it is neither accurate nor complete. In Hollywood. I suggest that such arguments are fact, the film's development, production, and based on narrow definitions of Hollywood and distribution were far more complicated than its product. Third, I problematize the declara- most journalistic tales have suggested. In this tions that My Big Fat Greek Wedditig represents paper, I provide an alternate perspective on the a triumph in innovative "grassroots" marketing production and distribution of My Big Fat Greek tactics and appealing to groups from the "bot- Wedding. I argue that the standard accounts tom up." In place of such a perspective, I main- provided by most media outlets have not only tain that the tactics employed in selling the constructed partial stories about the film, but film are representative of long-standing tactics even more importantly, they have reinforced employed by niche marketers. After surveying these dominant claims, I ALISA PERREN is a visiting assistant professor in propose that the film's financial success should the Communication Studies Department at North- not be interpreted as evidence that Hollywood eastern University. She has published articles on the film and television industries in Filtn Quarterly, has lost its way, but rather as proof of the ex- The Television History Book (BFI, 2003), and the istence and effectiveness of specific business forthcoming Sage Handbook of Media Studies (U practices and aesthetic parameters within the of Texas). contemporary media industries. Ultimately, I 18 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 56.2 / SUMMER 2OO4 encourage media analysts to cease from view- Premiere. Second, I situate these articles within ing My Big Fat Greek Wedding as an example the context of research on the structure, con- of one woman and one film defying the odds, duct, and performance ofthe entertainment instead, we should consider this film as an industries. This knowledge comes from two example of the uniformity of journalistic dis- main sources: work on media industry econom- courses, the complexity ofthe operations of ics conducted by such scholars as Douglas contemporary Hollywood, and the continuing Gomery, Alan Albarran, and Barry Litman; and ideological power ofthe so-called American trade books targeted to aspiring media mak- dream. ers and industry employees, such as Gregory Goodell's independent Feature Film Production Questions of Methodology: How Do and Dov Simen's From Reel to Deal. While the former sources provide a theoretical framework We Analyze the Contemporary Media from which to analyze the contemporary media Industries? industries, the latter enable one to understand Before establishing and challenging several key the standard working methods and normative claims about the making and marketing of My practices of today's Hollywood, Cumulatively, Big Fat Greek Wedding, it is important to note these materials provide a context within which the methodological difficulties of conducting a the journalistic materials can be placed. study such as this in the first place. In writing By situating the journalistic sources within this article, I have faced an issue encountered this larger context, it becomes clear that such by many contemporary media analysts. Namely, discourses are every bit as ideological as the how can I critique the discourses generated by media products generated by the media com- the mainstream press about the entertainment panies themselves. In this essay, I explore industries at the same time that I rely heavily and challenge the main claims made by the on these same sources to construct my argu- mainstream press about the production and ment? Or, put another way, how can one effec- distribution of/MyS/g Fat Greek Wedding. In the tively conduct an analysis ofthe contemporary process, one can see not only the uniformity of media industries? Whereas industry historians the arguments made in popular magazines and can often refer to a wide range of archival docu- newspapers, but also the extent to which these ments, due to legal and proprietary concerns, sources serve as a primary means by which mis- analysts ofthe contemporary media industries conceptions about the structure, conduct, and are often limited in their access to corporate performance of Hollywood are perpetuated. materials. Thus much oftheir information must come from trade documents and mainstream Challenging the Dominant Claims publications, with interviews serving as a means of supplementing knowledge and check- Claim #i: My Big Fat Greek Wedding is ing facts. the highest-grossing independent pirn of There are two main ways in which I have all time tried to overcome these methodological chal- lenges. First, I have looked to a wide range of Today Ms. Vardalos is having the last laugh, and it is news reports to confirm my information. Among louder and richer than she ever dreamed. The movie the sources consulted for this article include she wrote and starred in. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is the hit ofthe summer and one ofthe most profitable industry trade journals Variety, Hollywood independent films ever made. Reporter, and Advertising Age; a broad array The New York Times of newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times to the London Wedding has broken several box-office records and is Guardian; and several magazines and specialty on its way to breaking more, tt has far surpassed the publications such as Salon.com, People, and Dollars mom earned by previous indie champ The lOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 56,2 / SUMMER 2OO4 Blair Witch Project in 1999. it's also the highest-gross- This company can be identified as "indepen- ing movie never to have reached number one on the dent" inasmuch as it lacks affiliations with weekly box-office chart, though it's been in the top 10 the Hollywood majors. However, it has a rich since July. ltS4,ooo% return ranks itwith Star Wars and Gone with the Wind among the most profitable source of support in its cofounder. Norm Waitt, movies of all time, tn America, it's the fourth-highest who is also a cofounder ofthe computer hard- grossing movie of 2002 and is closing in on Austin ware company. Gateway, The other half of the Powers in Goldmember and Signs,,, production money came from HBO-one ofthe The Guardian most lucrative subsidiaries of the AOLTime Warner empire. Defining a film as "independent" has never The way HBO became involved in the devel- been easy. In recentyears, as independent opment of My Big Fat Greek Wedding is telling. films have become more popular (and more The project was originally brought to HBO by commercially viable), it has become even more Tom Hanks andhis wife, Rita Wilson, After Wil- of a challenge, and different analysts use differ- son saw the stage version