Mean Girls fetches $11.6M on opening day for estimated $31.5M MLK opening weekend

Mean Girls is easily winning the box office popularity contest with an estimated four-day opening of $31.5 million over the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, although severe winter weather saw more than 50 theaters close Friday in such hubs as Chicago and Toronto. Many of the shuttered cinemas hope to reopen Saturday.

The Paramount film arrives on the big screen 20 years after the Lindsay Lohan-led cult classic Mean Girls, which was directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey, strutted into cinemas. Fey returned to pen the script for the new film, which stars Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Bebe Wood and Chris Briney. Fey and Tim Meadows also reprise their roles from the 2004 movie.

Females turned out in force to see the new film, making up 74 percent of Friday ticket buyers. Younger females in particular were keen to see the musical right away. Nearly 70 percent of all ticket buyers were between ages 18 and 34, including 40 percent between 18 and 24. The movie topped Friday’s chart with $11.5 million and is coming in ahead of expectations.

The original Mean Girls sports a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 84 percent; the score for the new film is currently a fresh 70 percent from the first 108 reviews. While the 2004 film earned an A CinemaScore, the updated version earned a B+.

Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., Mean Girls cost a relatively modest $36 million to produce before marketing and is the latest musical to brave the big screen after Wonka and The Color Purple.

Screenrant points out that the musical's estimated 3-day box office of about $29M and 4-day estimate of $31.5M is considerably better than the 2004 original, which had an a 3-day opening gross (not adjusted for inflation) of $24.4 million and a 4-day total of $25.6 million, though it didn't open over a holiday.

Even though the Mean Girls musical has beaten the original's opening, it still has a long way to go if it wants to outgross the 2004 movie entirely. In addition to being a much-quoted classic, 2004's Mean Girls was a box office hit, becoming the 26th highest-grossing domestic movie of the year, above blockbusters including Alien vs. Predator, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Ultimately, with a domestic gross of $86 million and an international haul of $44 million, the movie grossed $130.1 million worldwide.

The new movie's success may end up depending on word of mouth. While the Mean Girls (2024) reviews are strong, earning a 70% score on Rotten Tomatoes, they can't quite compete with the Certified Fresh 84% of the original. Word of mouth could also be impacted by the fact that the movie wasn't advertised as a musical, which could potentially lead to audience consternation. However, the same advertising scheme didn't hurt the box office results of the 2023 holiday musical release Wonka, which became one of the top hits of the year.

Wonka opened somewhat higher than Mean Girls, with a 3-day opening gross of $39 million. However, if the new movie keeps up its pace relative to that 2023 release, which has so far earned a domestic total of $167.8 million, it could very well cross the $100 million mark in North America. Even if it earns a small international gross, the musical could very well pull ahead of the original movie with that kind of total.