Because time is a construct, it’s the year 2024, and the biggest film at the box office is … Mean Girls. That would be the new movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical based on the beloved 2004 film, which feels like a distinctly modern case of IP ouroboros. (Think High School Musical: the Musical: the Series, but more lucrative.) Despite harsh-to-middling reviews and several trailers noticeably avoiding any of the film’s musical numbers, the new Mean Girls topped the MLK holiday weekend box office with $33m, out-earning the original in absolute terms (adjusted for inflation, the first Mean Girls would have made around $40m on opening weekend). And, true to the spirit of the original, the Mean Girls musical movie has generated its own stream of memes – for not knowing it was a musical, for example, or for star Reneé Rapp Regina George-ing a tour bus company owner during a press junket.
For skeptics, interest in the new Mean Girls rides heavily on some differentiation from the modern classic. “It’s not just a remake of the original,” I heard one woman say as recommendation after a pilates class. “There are new songs and jokes.” Which is true, to an extent – original writer (and Ms Norbury) Tina Fey has updated the script for the times, tucking in jokes about slut-shaming and TikTok. Costume designer Tom Broecker somewhat controversially took just as much inspiration from “on Wednesdays, we were pink” as the vibrantly hued teens of Euphoria. There are several musical numbers by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond (music) and Nell Benjamin (lyrics). Still, the new version struggles to justify its existence, frequently feeling like a glossier yet overrehearsed karaoke performance of an unmatchable original.
