Mean Girls is easily winning the box office popularity contest at the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend box office with an estimated domestic opening of $32 million. An updated tally will be issued Monday since its a four-day holiday, but the movie is certain to come in ahead of expectations.
The Paramount film arrives in 3,791 North American theaters 20 years after the Lindsay Lohan-led cult classic Mean Girls, which was directed by Mark Waters from Tina Fey‘s script, strutted into cinemas. Fey returned to write the new film, which is based on the Broadway musical that was in turn adapted from the 2024 film. Overseas, it launched in only a few major markets but got off to a first-rate start in Australia and Mexico, where it came in No. 1. Its foreign opening tally is $6.5 million for a global start of $37.5 million against a production budget of $36 million befor marketing.
Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Bebe Wood and Chris Briney star in the new movie, with Fey and Tim Meadows also reprise their roles from the 2004 movie. Mean Girls is the latest Hollywood musical to brave the big screen after Wonka and The Color Purple, both from Warner Bros.
Musicals have become an endangered species, and the verdict is still on whether these films can help change that perception. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Wonka scored a huge milestone this weekend when dancing past the $500 million mark at the global office to become one of the top-grossing musicals of all time, not adjusted for inflation. It is holding at No. 3 this weekend with an estimated four-day gross of $10.9 million from 3,346 theaters for a domestic tally of $176.2 million. Overseas, the all-audience family film has grossed a dazzling $329.1 million for an estimated total of $505.3 million through Monday. The Color Purple has struggled after a strong opening, earning $58.5 million to date domestically (it has yet to play overseas).
Females turned out in force to see Mean Girls, making up 76 percent of 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 60 percent under the age of 25.
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+ (no filmmaker or studios likes a movie like to earn a B).
Amazon/MGM’s The Beekeeper, the latest action pic starring Jason Statham, is also exceeding expectations and buzzed to a second-place finish with an estimated four-day opening of $19.1 million from 3,303 theaters. It received a B CinemaScore.
The film hoped to serve as counterprogramming for men and is doing just that. Males made up 62 percent of Friday’s audience. Those between the ages of 25 and 34 made up the largest segment of ticket buyers, or 36 percent, altough plenty of older men showeed up as well, with 38 percent of the audience 45 and older.
Among other MLK nationwide openers, Legendary Pictures’ Black-led biblical satirical drama The Book of Clarence bombing, and badly. The Sony release, which also received a B CinemaScore, is headed for a four-day haul of roughly $2.5 million to $3 million from 2,010 theaters, putting it outside the top 10. Jeymes Samuel directs the period Jesus movie, with Jay-Z producing. The star-packed ensemble cast includes LaKeith Stanfield, RJ Cyler, Omar Sy, Alfre Woodard, David Oyelowo and James McAvoy.
Disney and Pixar brought Soul to the big screen for the first time amid a slowdown in the content pipeline due to post-strike production and post-production issues (t also provides a chance to show a trailer for 2024 summer tenptole Inside Out 2. The animated pic was among several Pixar titles that went straight to Disney+ during the pandemic era. Disney is estimated that Soul earned roughly $525,000 for the four-day MLK weekend from roughly 1,300 screens.
MLK Weekend brought a milestone for Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, which has crossed the $50 million mark at the domestic box office to become the top-grossing Japanese language film of all time in North America, not adjusted for inflation. And it’s No. 5 on the list of the top-grossing foreign language films of all time domestically, not adjusted.
At the specialty box office, Cord Jefferson’s awards contender American Fiction is doing nice business as MGM and Amazon up its theater count to 625 locations. The critically acclaimed film is headed for a four-day holiday gross of $2 million. Adapted from Percival Everett’s satirical novel Erasure, American Fiction stars Jeffrey Wright as a frustrated author facing the Black artist’s dilemma. Sterling K. Brown, Leslie Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae and Adam Brody co-star.
A24’s Zone of Interest likewise, another high-profile awards contender, did nice business when expanding into 25 cinemas, scoring the best per-location average of the weekend. The acclaimed film — Jonathan Glazer’s first movie in 10 years — earned an estimated $300,000 for a location average of $12,000. More than of this weekend’s audience was under the age of 35, a stat not normally seen with an arthouse or specialty title (A24 is know for being able to tap into younger audiences).
And Searchlight’s Poor Things finished the holiday weekend with a domestic tally of $17.7 million after earning an estimated $2.2 million from 580 locations. Overseas, it opened to an impressive $2 million in the U.K. this week, putting the movie’s early foreign total at $6.1 million.
Jan. 14, 7:30 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates.
Jan. 14, 9 a.m.: Updated with revised foreign grosses.
This story was first published Jan. 13 at 8:34 am
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