Wedding march still playing strong My Big Fat Greek Wedding holds fort at US BO

Arthur J Pais

Will the never-going-away movie of the year, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, finally make it to the top this weekend or will be overtaken by a surprise hit like last week?

Now in its 21st week, Wedding started out with a few theatres and gradually added hundreds. The film has already reached the $99 million mark. Throughout the week, it was top grossing film in America, followed by the sentimental crime drama City By The Sea and Swimfan, the top movie last weekend.

This might be the final chance for Wedding to zoom to the top. Next week, The Four Feathers, a much publicised war drama from Shekhar Kapur, opens nationwide.

Competing for the top position are two moderately budgeted films --- Barbershop, a comedy starring Ice Cube aimed at mostly African-American moviegoers and Stealing Harvard.

Barbershop revolves around a struggling man in Chicago, Calvin (Ice Cube) who tries to get back his late father's haircutting saloon after selling it to a loan shark. When Calvin gradually begins to see his father's vision and gets to understand his legacy, he knows he cannot rest till he has undone his foolish act

Ice Cube has a faithful following. His two low-budget Friday series movies have grossed about $90 million in America and have made more money in video and DVD sales. It will be interesting to see how much Barbershop will give some box-office adrenaline to MGM, which has seen half a dozen of its big-budget movies doing utterly bald business.

Jason Lee and Tom Green will be tempting the younger audiences with Stealing Harvard, a film about two young men going to outrageous and hilarious lengths to help a relative with college tuition.

Duff (Green) and John (Lee) are best friends in the movie, though they are far different from each other. While Duff seems to be a confirmed under-achiever, John is a down to earth and hard working guy who is dreaming of marrying his long-time girlfriend Elaine. Just when they are about to marry, having saved some money for their own home, John's sister calls him up saying her daughter has been admitted to one of the top universities in America.

Then comes the heart-breaking news. The sister reminds him of his promise to pay his niece's tuition piece --- which is almost the same amount $30,000 --- which he had saved as down payment for his new home.

Now, Duff enters the picture, planning to help his buddy raise the money. Duff's warped mind makes John's life more complicated.

Movies aimed at teens have had an erratic ride at the box-office this year. The forecast for Barbershop is about $11 million. Stealing Harvard is expected to elope with about $8 million.

Barbershop has received far better reviews than Stealing Harvard . The Chicago Tribune, for instance, has called it 'an entertaining, surprisingly well-written and often rowdily amusing picture.'

'It is predictable in many ways but also full of heart, humour and personality,' the review said.

Also increasing its clout is Robin William's dark crime drama One Hour Photo, which has done excellent business in limited release and will be looking for excellent photo-ops in about 1,200 movie labs.