'Mean Girls' to Rule the Box Office This Weekend
by EG
If moviegoers venture out into the cold this weekend, they're likely to go see Mean Girls, a film version of the Broadway musical based on the original film (that was released less than 20 years ago). It's not clear how eager audiences will be to turn out for this third-generation remake, but the movie is tracking ahead of all of its competition at this point. Read on for details.
Mean Girls should do nice business in its box office debut.
Paramount’s movie adaptation of the Broadway musical that was, in turn, based on the 2004 big-screen teen comedy is expected to open to as much as $30 million over the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
That would mark a great start for a studio film that cost a relatively modest $36 million to produce before marketing, not to mention a musical, a genre that has become an endangered species (Wonka aside).
The musical 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. The latter 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.
Female-fueled films — look no further than Barbie or Anyone but You — have been doing impressive business at the box office, and Mean Girls hopes to be the latest example. Younger females in particular are known for being repeat viewers, just as fanboys are.
The original Mean Girls sports a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 84 percent; the score for the new film is currently 74 percent from the first 53 reviews.
Mean Girls is hardly the only new title on the crowded MLK holiday marquee. Amazon/MGM’s The Beekeeper, the latest action pic starring Jason Statham, hopes to serve as counterprogramming for men and is tipped to open in the mid to high teens.
Legendary Pictures’ and Sony’s biblical satirical drama The Book of Clarence, is tracking to open in the single digits, despite a star-packed ensemble cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Omar Sy, Alfre Woodard, David Oyelowo and James McAvoy. Jaymes Samuel directs the Jesus period pic, with Jay-Z producing.
Disney and Pixar are also in the mix this weekend, bringing Soul to the big screen for the first time. It is the first of three Pixar films that premiered exclusively on Disney+ during the pandemic that are now getting a theatrical release as a way of making sure exhibitors have enough product as the content pipeline slows in the wake of Hollywood’s historic labor strikes. It’s also an opportunity to promote the trailer for Pixar’s 2024 summer tentpole Inside Out 2.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.