The box office debut of Mean Girls
is anticipated to be quite successful. Paramount's film adaptation of the
Broadway musical, itself derived from the 2004 teen comedy, is projected to
have an opening weekend earning as high as $30 million, especially during the
extended Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
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| Busy Philipps plays Mrs. George in Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures |
This promising start is noteworthy
for a studio film that was relatively economical to produce, with a budget of
$36 million, excluding marketing expenses. It is particularly noteworthy in the
musical genre, which has become somewhat scarce in recent times, with only a
few exceptions like Wonka.
The musical adaptation comes to the big screen two decades after the Lindsay Lohan-led cult classic, Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. Fey returns to craft the script for the new film, featuring Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Bebe Wood, and Chris Briney. Additionally, Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles from the 2004 movie.
Against the backdrop of successful
female-centric films like Barbie and Anyone But You at the box office, Mean
Girls aspires to follow suit. Notably, younger female audiences, much like
fanboys, are recognized for their tendency to be repeat viewers.
The original Mean Girls boasts an
84 percent critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, while the new film currently
holds a 74 percent score from the first 53 reviews.
Mean Girls isn't the only new
offering in the bustling MLK holiday lineup. The Beekeeper, Amazon/MGM's latest
action film featuring Jason Statham, aims to provide counterprogramming for a
male audience, with expectations of opening in the mid to high teens.
Meanwhile, The Book of Clarence, a biblical satirical drama from Legendary Pictures and Sony, is anticipated to have a single-digit opening, despite a star-studded ensemble cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Omar Sy, Alfre Woodard, David Oyelowo, and James McAvoy. Directed by Jaymes Samuel, with Jay-Z as the producer, the Jesus period piece is set to hit the screens.
This weekend, Disney and Pixar join
the lineup by bringing Soul to the big screen for the first time. Soul is the
initial installment of three Pixar films that initially premiered exclusively
on Disney+ during the pandemic and are now receiving a theatrical release. This
strategy aims to ensure that exhibitors have a sufficient supply of content as
the industry experiences a slowdown due to historic labor strikes in Hollywood.
Additionally, it serves as an opportunity to promote the trailer for Pixar's
much-anticipated summer tentpole, Inside Out 2, set for release in 2024.
Soul's theatrical run did not receive a major marketing campaign, and the movie will continue to be available on Disney+. Subsequent releases include Turning Red on February 9 and Luca on March 22.
In the midst of the awards season,
Amazon and MGM take on a dual role this weekend by expanding filmmaker Cord
Jefferson's American Fiction into approximately 600 theaters. The critically
acclaimed film, adapted from Percival Everett's satirical novel Erasure,
features Jeffrey Wright as a frustrated author confronting the challenges of
being a Black artist. Co-starring in the film are Sterling K. Brown, Leslie
Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, and Adam Brody.
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