‘Mean Girls’ musical tops original’s opening weekend with $28M debut

Driving the news: Released on Friday, “Mean Girls,” adapted from the 2018 Broadway musical of the same title, opened with $28 million domestically and $6.5 million internationally over the three-day weekend. Its weekend box office performance surpassed that of the 2004 film, which made $24.4 million in its weekend U.S. release on April 30, 2004.

Like the 2024 musical, the original film also topped the weekend box office at the time.

The new “Mean Girls,” co-directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., stars Reneé Rapp, 24, as Regina George; Bebe Wood, 22, as Gretchen Wieners; and Avantika Vandanapu, 18, as Karen Shetty, the new generation of the Plastics. As with the original film, Tina Fey is behind the screenplay and reprises her role as Ms. Norbury.

About Avantika: The film’s Indian American lead, Avantika, was born in San Francisco on Jan. 25, 2005. She was a runner-up in the North America Edition of “Dance India Dance Little Master Series” in 2014 and made her Telugu cinema debut in 2016 with “Brahmotsavam.”

She also appeared in the recurring voice role of Kamala in the Dimeasney Junior series “Mira, Royal Detective,” as well as Monyca in Disney Plus‘ “Diary of a Future President.”

On playing Karen: In the new movie, Avantika’s Karen replaces Amanda Seyfried’s Karen Smith from the original movie. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Avantika revealed that Karen was easily her “favorite” for her “stupid, funny, silly and kind” personality.

“I thought there was something really pure and beautiful about watching somebody retain how kind of a person they are despite their circumstances,” she said.

On playing Janis: Another of the film’s AAPI stars is Auliʻi Cravalho, who plays Janis ʻImi’ike, based on the original movie’s Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan). Speaking to The Wrap, she said she opted out of rewatching the character while preparing for her role.

“It’s a classic. Like, that is sacred text, that’s a sacred film, you don’t really want to touch that, you know?” she told the outlet. “So I made the choice, before auditioning, and then after receiving the role to not watch our ’04 film, because I just wanted to make her all my own.”