“MEAN GIRLS”, the Paramount release, Broadway-adapted musical and the 2004 Tina Fey movie, earned $28 million in its first three days in theaters according to studio estimates Sunday. Not accounting for inflation, that’s more than the $24.4 million the first movie made in its opening weekend.
The “Mean Girls” competition over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend featured several new releases, including the Jason Statham action movie “ The Beekeeper " and the Jay-Z produced biblical satire “The Book of Clarence," in addition to a slew of awards contenders capitalizing on buzz from recent nominations and the Golden Globes.
As with “Barbie,” another enthusiastically pink movie, female audiences made up the vast majority (76%) of opening weekend ticket buyers for “Mean Girls.”
“The property is iconic,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “Tina Fey is legendary and her contemporary twist has resonated with audiences, particularly the female audience.”
This iteration of “Mean Girls” stars Angourie Rice, Auli’i Cravalho and Reneé Rapp, who played Regina on stage. It was originally planned to go straight to streaming on Paramount+, but the studio pivoted after test scores were positive. Social media played a big part in getting the word out and “Mean Girls” also inspired groups of friends to go to the movies together. An estimated 40% went with two or more friends.
Fey returned to write and co-star in the new film, which was directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. and cost a reported $36 million to produce. Reviews have been more positive than not, with a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a B CinemaScore which may not bode especially well for word-of-mouth appeal. Recent musicals like “Wonka” and “The Color Purple” scored in the A-range. The studio is optimistic after this weekend though. It also made $6.5 million from 16 international markets.
Amazon and MGM’s “The Beekeeper" debuted in second place with an estimated $16.8 million from 3,303 theaters.
Third place went to “Wonka,” which added $8.4 million in its fifth weekend. The Timothée Chalamet-led musical has now made over $178 million domestically and $500 million globally.
The Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” a Sony release, is turning into a bit of a sleeper success as well, making nearly $7 million in its fourth weekend. By Monday, its domestic total should be around $56.5 million. Universal and Illumination’s “Migration” rounded out the top five with $6.2 million in its fourth weekend.
Not everything landed this weekend, though. “The Book of Clarence,” a faith-based comedy/drama with a starry, ensemble cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, David Oyelowo, Alfre Woodard and Teyana Taylor is not off to a promising start. The Legendary Pictures release opened to an estimated $2.6 million from just over 2,000 locations.
The Walt Disney Co. sent its 2020 Pixar film “Soul” to movie theaters this weekend as well, where it made $429,000 from 1350 locations in North America. It's the first of several Pixar movies, including “Luca" and “Turning Red,” that Disney is bringing to theaters this winter after all had streaming-only releases on Disney+ during the pandemic. AP