‘Mean Girls: The Musical’ Film Now Coming to Theaters
Mean Girls: The Musical will get a theatrical release instead of an originally planned Paramount+ premiere. The film adaptation directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne with a screenplay by Tina Fey is based on the Tony-nominated stage musical of the same name.
Deadline reports that this is the second time Paramount has switched an upcoming movie from Paramount+ to theaters. The horror hit Smile — originally a Paramount+ release — went to theaters last year and grossed over $217 million worldwide against a modest budget of $17 million.
The studio hopes for repeated success with Mean Girls: The Musical, starring Angourie Rice (pictured, above), Reneé Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, Avantika, Mahi Alam, Christopher Briney, Bebe Wood, Ashley Park, Connor Ratliff, and Jon Hamm.
Mean Girls: The Musical Star Angourie Rice Says That She Knows the 2004 Movie “By Heart”
2004's Mean Girls stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Rachel McAdams, and Lacey Chabert (pictured, left to right). The Mark Waters-directed movie written by Tina Fey became a cult classic and inspired the stage musical upon which Mean Girls: The Musical is based.
Earlier this year, Mean Girls: The Musical star Angourie Rice spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the inevitable comparisons between her performance and Lohan's. “I think no matter what, no two people are going to do the same thing the same way,” said Rice. “So I think no matter what, it's going to be different. Even if you got two actors in a room to say the exact same speech, it's just going to be different. So I'm not too worried about it being too similar or too different. I think it's going to be what it is, and I can't wait for people to see it.”
Rice told Entertainment Tonight that she had “the greatest time” making the movie musical. “I love, love, love Mean Girls the movie,” she said. “I grew up on that movie. It's one of my favorites. I know it all by heart. So to be a part of it was just so, so exciting.”
Rice is an Australian actress best known in the United States as the Marvel Cinematic Universe character Betty Brant, appearing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Mean Girls: The Musical is scheduled to drop on January 12, 2024, which is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
