Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents is a 2000 American romantic comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. It chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless nurse (Ben Stiller as Greg Focker) while visiting his girlfriend's parents (Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes and Blythe Danner as Dina Byrnes). In addition, Teri Polo stars as Pam Byrnes (Greg Focker's girlfriend) while Owen Wilson stars as Kevin Rawley (Pam Byrnes' ex-boyfriend).
This article is about the 2000 film. For other uses, see Meet the Parents (disambiguation).Meet the Parents
- Greg Glienna
- Mary Ruth Clarke
- Nancy Tenenbaum
- Jay Roach
- Jane Rosenthal
- Robert De Niro
- Robert De Niro
- Ben Stiller
- Blythe Danner
- Teri Polo
- James Rebhorn
- Jon Abrahams
- Owen Wilson
- Jon Poll
- Greg Hayden
- TriBeCa Productions
- Nancy Tenenbaum Productions
- Universal Pictures (North America)
- DreamWorks Pictures (International)
- October 6, 2000
108 minutes
United States
English
$55 million
$330.4 million
The film is a remake of a 1992 film of the same name directed by Greg Glienna and produced by Jim Vincent. Glienna – who also played the original film's protagonist – and Mary Ruth Clarke cowrote the screenplay. Universal Pictures purchased the rights to Glienna's film with the intent of creating a new version. Jim Herzfeld expanded the original script but development was halted for some time. Jay Roach read the expanded script and expressed his desire to direct it but Universal declined him. At that time, Steven Spielberg was interested in doing so while Jim Carrey was interested in playing the lead role.[1] The studio only offered the film to Roach once Spielberg and Carrey left the project.
Released in the United States and Canada on October 6, 2000 and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film earned back its initial budget of $55 million in only 11 days. It went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of 2000, earning over $165 million in North America and over $330 million worldwide. It was well received by film critics and viewers alike, winning several awards and earning additional nominations. Ben Stiller won two comedy awards for his performance and the film was chosen as the Favorite Comedy Motion Picture at the 2001 People's Choice Awards. The success of the film inspired two sequels, namely Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers released in 2004 and 2010, respectively. It also inspired a reality television show titled Meet My Folks and a sitcom titled In-Laws, both of which debuted on NBC in 2002.
Plot[edit]
Greg Focker, a Jewish American nurse living in Chicago, intends to propose to his girlfriend, Pam Byrnes. Greg chooses to obtain the blessing of Pam's father at the wedding of Pam's sister, Debbie, at their parents' house on Long Island, and then propose to her in front of her family. This plan is put on hold when the airline company loses his luggage, which contains the engagement ring.
At the Byrnes's house, Greg meets Pam's father Jack, mother Dina, and beloved cat Jinx. Despite maintaining a friendly demeanor towards Greg, Jack is immediately suspicious of him and is critical of his choice of career as a nurse. Greg gifts Jack an extremely rare flower, but Jack does not recognize it, and he becomes even more uncomfortable after he receives an impromptu lie detector test from Jack. Pam explains that Jack's profession as a florist is a cover, and he is actually a retired CIA operative who interrogated double agents.
Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, including Debbie's future in-laws, Greg still feels like an outsider. He also becomes insecure about his relationship with Pam when he learns she was previously engaged, and that her ex-fiancé Kevin is amiable, handsome, wealthy, and still on friendly terms with Pam, and is also acting as the Best Man in Debbie's wedding. Despite efforts to impress her family, Greg's inadvertent actions make him an easy target for ridicule. Greg unintentionally gives Debbie a broken nose and a black eye during a pool volleyball game, floods the backyard with sewage, breaks an urn containing the ashes of Jack's mother, and sets the wedding altar on fire. Jack suspects Greg is a marijuana user after he endorses the marijuana interpretation of "Puff, the Magic Dragon". When Jack catches Pam's brother Denny with a marijuana pipe, Denny hastily claims he found it in Greg's luggage.
Greg loses Jinx and replaces him with a near-identical stray, whose tail he spray-paints and who makes a mess of the house, including destroying Debbie's wedding dress. Greg's deception is exposed when a neighbor finds the real Jinx, the entire Byrnes family demand Greg to leave Long Island. Jack accuses Greg of lying about taking the Medical College Admission Test because his CIA contacts could not find any record of a Gregory Focker. Greg retaliates by revealing he has seen Jack engaging in secret meetings, receiving passports, and speaking in Thai, and deduces that Jack has taken on a new CIA mission, only for Jack to angrily reveal that he was arranging a surprise honeymoon in Thailand for Debbie and her fiancé Bob.
A devastated Greg drives to the airport to return to Chicago, but is detained by airport security for refusing to again check his luggage which is too large for carry-on. Back at the Byrnes's house, Pam shows her parents copies of Greg's MCAT transcript which his parents faxed her; the CIA found no record of Greg because his first name is Gaylord, not Gregory. Jack still believes that Greg is an unsuitable husband for Pam, but Dina lectures him over his consistent disapproval of any man Pam brings home. After hearing Pam make a heartfelt phone call to Greg, apologizing for not sticking up for him, Jack realizes that Pam truly loves Greg. He rushes to the airport and convinces security to release Greg. The two clear the air with each other, with Greg citing his fear of living up to Jack’s unattainable standards. After ensuring Greg’s loyalty and devotion to Pam, Jack finally accepts Greg, and asks him to be his son-in-law.
After returning to the Byrnes home, Greg proposes to Pam, as Jack and Dina listen in from their bedroom, agreeing that they should now meet Greg's parents. After Debbie's wedding, Jack views footage of Greg recorded by hidden cameras that he had placed around the house, in which Greg vents his frustrations with Jack, and also exposes Denny as a marijuana user.
Rating[edit]
Greg Glienna did not come up with the surname Focker; Greg's character in the original film did not have a last name. The name was written into the script after Jim Carrey came up with the idea for the Focker surname during a creative session held before he abandoned the project.[13][18][29] Once Meet the Parents was submitted for rating evaluation, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) questioned the surname Focker as possibly an expletive and, due to the repetitiveness of the surname throughout the film, it was in danger of being rated R according to the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. The filmmakers were asked if they had made up the name or if they can prove that such a name exists. The studio submitted to the MPAA a list of real people with the surname Focker which ensured that the film retained a PG-13 rating.[38]
Release[edit]
Theatrical run[edit]
Meet the Parents had its theatrical release in United States and Canada on October 6, 2000. Distributed domestically by Universal Studios, it had an advertising budget of $33.9 million.[39] It quickly proved to be a financial success, taking in $28.6 million during its opening weekend and averaging $10,950 per theater in a total of 2,614 theaters.[40] It finished as the top-earning film for the weekend of October 6–8, beating the second-placer Remember the Titans by a margin of over $9 million and bringing in more than four times the earnings of Get Carter, the next highest-earning film released that same weekend.[41] Its opening-weekend earnings were the highest ever for any film released in the month of October, surpassing Antz, as well as marking the highest opening weekend earnings for a film starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, beating Analyze This and The Cable Guy simultaneously.[42][43] The film's October opening weekend record was later given to Red Dragon in 2002.[44] Its earnings for the second week of release dropped by 26% down to $21.1 million, which still kept it at No.1 at the box office beating Remember the Titans by a margin of over $8 million.[45] By the end of the second week of release, it had already grossed over $58 million, surpassing its production budget of $55 million.[45]
It spent its first four weeks of theatrical release as the highest-grossing film at the U.S. box office, making it the first film to do so since The Sixth Sense in 1999.[40][46] It was displaced from No.1 during the weekend of November 3–5 by the newly released Charlie's Angels while still managing to stay ahead of The Legend of Bagger Vance, another new release that debuted at number 3.[47][48] It remained in the Top 10 grossing films until its 11th week.[40] In the United Kingdom, it had its theatrical premiere on December 15, 2000 and was distributed by United International Pictures (UIP).[49][50] There, it managed to earn over $21 million during its run.[51] In Australia, also being distributed by UIP, it was released on December 26, 2000,[52] where it earned over $11 million during the theatrical run.[51] In Germany, it made $7,064 in its opening weekend, making it the third-highest opening weekend of 2000 in the country, behind Mission: Impossible 2 and American Pie.[53]
Twenty-five weeks after its opening day in North America, Meet the Parents completed its theatrical run on March 29, 2001, grossing $166.2 million in the United States and a total of $330.4 million worldwide,[54] making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year both domestically[55] and worldwide.[56]
Home media[edit]
The film was released on VHS and DVD on March 6, 2001.[57] The DVD sales for it were successful, taking in over $200 million for 2001.[58] Billboard magazine listed it as having the highest video sales for all weeks from March 31 up to and including April 21,[59][60][61][62] being the top-selling DVD for the weeks of March 24 and March 31,[59][63] and being the top-rented video for the weeks of April 7 and April 14.[60][61] Within its first week of release, it made $4.3 million in DVD rentals, beating the previous record held by What Lies Beneath. Making $21.4 million, the film had the second-highest home video rentals at the time, after The Sixth Sense.[64]
The DVD release provides only the letterbox format of the film and is also 108 minutes in length. The aspect ratio is 1.85:1 with an accommodation for an enhanced 16:9 playback. English-language audio tracks available with the film are a 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS with the main noticeable difference being only a slightly louder bass on one of the tracks.[65] A French-language audio track is also available only in 5.1 Dolby Digital Format. Additionally, English language subtitles are provided as well.[65]
The single-disc "Collector's Edition" contains two audio commentaries, one a light-hearted and humorous discussion between Roach, Stiller, De Niro, and producer Jane Rosenthal and the other a more formal technical commentary on the film-making aspects by the director and editor Jon Poll. The director discusses issues that include working with the cast, utilizing the best camera angles for comedic effect, discussing scenes that were improvised and scenes that were scripted, and commenting on issues surrounding shooting on location. The editor speaks about putting together the best functioning comedy from material that was filmed and discusses some deleted scenes that were excluded from the DVD release. In addition, the DVD features a twelve-minute outtake section, three minutes of deleted scenes, and Universal's Spotlight on Location featurette. Spotlight on Location is a standard 24-minute-long featurette about the making of the film which includes interviews with the cast members and contains behind-the-scenes footage.[65] It also contains two games called Take The Lie Detector Test and The Forecaster Game as well as PC material such as wallpapers and screensavers. There are also trailers for The Mummy Returns and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.[65][66] The region 2 edition of the DVD was released on October 22, 2001. A region 1 "Bonus Edition" was released on December 14, 2004, in both Widescreen (1.85:1) & Full Screen (1.33:1) formats. Both versions contain three additional featurettes: Silly Cat Tricks, The Truth About Lying and a 12-minute-long Jay Roach: A Director's Profile.[14]
Influence[edit]
The success of the film was initially responsible for a 2002 NBC reality television show entitled Meet My Folks in which a young woman's love interest, vying for her family's approval, is interrogated by the woman's overprotective father with the help of a lie detector machine.[98][99] In September 2002, NBC also aired a situation comedy entitled In-Laws. During the development of it, NBC called it "a Meet the Parents project" which prompted an investigation by Universal into whether NBC was infringing on Universal's copyright.[100] Universal did not pursue any action against NBC but neither show lasted more than one season. NBC and Universal would merge in 2004.
In 2004, Meet the Fockers was released as a sequel to the film.[101][102] Directed again by Jay Roach with a screenplay by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg, it chronicles the events that take place when the Byrnes family meets Bernie and Roz Focker, Greg's parents, played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. The producers intended for them to be the opposite of the Byrneses' conservative, upper class, WASPy demeanor; to that effect, producer Jane Rosenthal explains that "Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand were our dream team."[103] The sequel proved to be another financial success grossing $280 million domestically and $516 million worldwide,[104] outperforming Meet the Parents by a large margin and finishing as the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2004.[105]
In February 2007, Universal Studios announced that they would be making a second sequel in the franchise, titled Little Fockers.[106][107][108] It was to be directed by Roach with the screenplay written by Larry Stuckey, Roach's former assistant.[106][108] The sequel brings back De Niro, Stiller, Polo, Danner, Hoffman, and Streisand.[106][108] Roach was later replaced as director of the third film by Paul Weitz. Little Fockers was released in 2010 and grossed $148.4 million domestically and $310.7 million worldwide.
On July 18, 2005, a regularly scheduled American Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport to San Juan, Puerto Rico, had to be diverted back to Fort Lauderdale shortly after take-off due to a bomb threat. The pilot turned the plane around approximately 40 minutes into the flight after a flight attendant found a crumpled napkin that read "Bomb, bomb, bomb...meet the parents," a clear reference to the scene in which Greg repeatedly shouts the word "bomb" while being detained by airport security.[109][110] The plane was met by a bomb squad of the local sheriff's office as well as the FBI whose agents questioned its 176 passengers about the note.