The new version of Mean Girls had high expectations to live up to, and it managed to exceed them during its opening weekend. The new musical inspired by the 2000s teen classic topped the box office during the MLK four-day weekend with a $33 million opening.
Mean Girls was projected to gross $27–30 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, and it lived up to the hype. It debuted at $28.65 million in North America, and its total opening weekend gross went up to $33.2 million during the fourth day in the theaters. It also made an additional $6.5 million overseas, after opening in 16 international markets.
Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution, praised Tina Fey’s new twist for resonating with audiences and added they’re expecting even better results as time goes by.
“It’s no secret that the release calendar is a little light for the first couple months of the year and because of the reception to this film we stand a chance of broadening this audience. It really is a crowd-pleaser,” said Aronson in a statement.
Mean Girls premiered on January 12, and releasing it theatrically proved to be a slam dunk for Paramount after they decided to make a pivot from the straight-to-streaming release due to positive test scores.
