The Mean Girls Box Office Is A Win For The Plastics - But Is It A Paper Champion?

"Mean Girls" continues to be Queen Bee at the box office, but is it really a success? Arguably one of the best comedies of all time, the original 2004 "Mean Girls" continues to endure two decades after its release. The teen film's success led to a Broadway musical, with film writer Tina Fey steering the ship. Now, a cinematic adaptation of the musical, simply titled "Mean Girls," is dominating at the box office. Released on January 12, 2024, the pic debuted to a decent $28.6 million domestically, a solid opening no doubt fueled by hardcore fans of the franchise. In its second weekend, the picture once again took the number-one spot, grossing $11.7 million — with its domestic total now over $50 million, crossing a competent milestone.

But that first-to-second-weekend drop-off is staggering — at 59%. It was an expected drop, but one that could potentially spell discomfort for the longevity of the Paramount pic. With a modest production budget of $36 million, the new "Mean Girls" is already a profitable venture for the studio, especially when one considers its current worldwide total of $66 million. But the box office has been noticeably quiet in the last two weeks, being fueled mainly by "Mean Girls" and Jason Statham's "The Beekeeper." Compare early-January 2024 weekends to the previous year, and it's clear the box office isn't stacking up. While "Mean Girls" is a win in the early-January dumping ground, how long does it have left at the box office? 

The real question is, can the musical remake cross the $100 million barrier and outgross the over-$130 million worldwide haul of the original? When adjusted for inflation, the Lindsay Lohan pic currently stands at a crazy $211 million — a threshold that seems like it would take a Herculean effort to cross.

Let's be very clear: The "Mean Girls" musical is a winner at the box office and deserves all the financial love it's getting. The film has a decent B CinemaScore – likely because it was stealthily not marketed as a musical, which may have confused some of the opening weekend crowd — and has a modest 71% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. And in an era when comedies are typically sent to streaming services ("Mean Girls" 2024 was originally set to debut on Paramount+), it's a massive win for Paramount to start the year off with a solid box office hit. 

Early January is a relatively quiet time at the box office, mostly bolstered by late-December releases from the previous year and middling studio fare that otherwise wouldn't succeed in more crowded months. An argument could be made that "Mean Girls" is only really succeeding because there's nothing to watch at the cinemas. The second weekend of January 2024 (when "Mean Girls" debuted) is on par with the same weekend in 2023, when "Avatar: The Way of Water" was dominating. But let's skip back to the same weekend in 2020, back when the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't disrupted the industry. In 2020, that weekend brought in a total of $133 million for all films showing domestically, a far cry from the $103 million haul that was brought in that weekend in 2024.

The third weekend of January 2024 had a domestic total of $65 million. This is when the cracks begin to show in "Mean Girls" and the larger theatrical industry. The same weekend in 2023 brought in $74 million. In 2020, that number was a massive $166 million.

The theatrical exhibition industry as a whole is struggling to match pre-pandemic heights. In 2023, the domestic total was $8.9 billion, higher than 2022's $7.4 billion haul but still a far cry from the $11 billion norm which ran from 2015 to 2019. These numbers are important for context, as they paint a picture of the current theatrical landscape in which "Mean Girls" is supposedly dominating. 

Three weeks into 2024, the box office is off to an exceptionally slow start — something that was working in the favor of "Mean Girls." With very few offerings at the multiplex, the musical is reigning alongside the action flick "The Beekeeper," though that picture is mostly dominating internationally. The upcoming fourth weekend of January spells doom for both "Mean Girls" and the larger cinematic industry. With no major new releases and the lack of holds, we might have a domestic weekend that's below $55 million — not good at all. For context, the final weekend of January 2023 had a disappointing but still respectable $74 million total. 

While it's fantastic that a female-dominated musical is coming in number one at the box office two weekends in a row, this isn't the win that most people think it is. "Mean Girls" is on track to have a disastrous third weekend. Those who wanted to see it because of their love for the original have likely already seen it, and word of mouth isn't compelling enough, like for "Wonka" or "Anyone But You," to facilitate walk-ups. A near-60% second-weekend drop only guarantees disappointment as January wraps up. 

Moving beyond the discussion of the landscape that "Mean Girls" has found itself in, it's also important to consider how its run matches up to the original. "Mean Girls" 2004 is the quintessential millennial flick, aggressively quoted to this day in both social-media and in-person circles. Its cultural footprint is unmatched, and IP is king, so it makes perfect sense that Paramount was interested in remaking the flick. It found the perfect way to do so by adapting the popular musical, but the receipts don't really stack up when you consider the monumental fandom of the original film.

"Mean Girls" 2004 was a solid success at the box office, grossing over $130 million worldwide against a budget of $18 million, a run that likely won't be matched by the remake. In a world where "Mean Girls" is everywhere, the box office potential of the musical version has certainly been stunted. While it's admirable that Tina Fey and co. decided to adapt the musical as opposed to just doing a plain remake, it's clear from the box office stats and fan reception that many were stunned by that decision — especially because marketing didn't convey what the film was doing. 

A B CinemaScore is far from a death sentence, but it shows that the film is just average for most viewers (Looper gave "Mean Girls" a mediocre 6/10), riding on the coattails of the original. Currently, the "Mean Girls" remake stands at $66 million worldwide, but with momentum dropping like a brick, it's hard to imagine it grossing over $85 million, let alone touching the $130 million cume of the original.