'Mean Girls' Musical Triumphs at the Box Office, With TikTok Assistance
The movie box office this holiday weekend was flooded with “Mean Girls,” and TikTok may have been at least partially responsible for its dominance.
The new PG-13 movie, a musical rendition of the 2004 original starring Lindsay Lohan and featuring songs that made the 2018 Broadway adaptation (and two national tours) a roaring hit, grossed $28 over the holiday weekend million. The film finished in first place, beating out the Jason Statham action film “The Beekeeper,” which grossed $16.8 million. (Paramount Pictures expects “Mean Girls” to reach $32 million once receipts from Monday's federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King's birthday are added.)
The news was a welcome relief for the cinema box office, which did not benefit from a huge year-end blockbuster that often carries over into the new year. (On this weekend last year, “Avatar: The Way of Water” grossed another $40 million in its fifth weekend.) “Mean Girls” also offers confirmation that Paramount's aggressive digital marketing strategies were successful.
The studio has made significant efforts to use the original film, which grossed $130 million worldwide, as the best form of promotion for this new version.
On October 3, known to fans as “Mean Girls Day,” Paramount used TikTok as a platform to introduce young audiences to the cult classic, a staple of tween sleepovers, by sharing 23 10-minute clips for a one day marketing stunt on social media site.
According to Marc Weinstock, Paramount's global president of marketing and distribution, the effort generated 750,000 views of the entire film in its first 15 hours on the site, and added 100,000 followers to the new Mean Girls TikTok account, which now has 515,000 followers has. .
All this for a movie where screenwriter, producer and star Tina Fey said it felt like “the movie has been on TBS every day for 20 years.”
Of the TikTok effort, which bowed during the actors' strike and compensated for the film's actors, Mr. Weinstock said, “We thought it would be very successful, but not as successful as it was.” He attributed most of the interest to users who had never seen the original film, despite its ubiquitous presence on television.
Directed by husband-wife team Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., the 2024 version stars Reneé Rapp as the head of “Plastic,” Regina George and Angourie Rice as her enemy Cady Heron, who falls under her spell. The film was originally slated for Paramount's streaming service, but after positive test screenings over the summer, the studio opted to bring the film to theaters. (Paramount took a similar route with 2022's “Smile,” a meme-generating horror film that grossed $106 million domestically, and “80 for Brady,” which the studio released last February.)
The decision to release the film in theaters resulted in an estimated $20 million in marketing costs, mostly for online promotions. In addition to promoting the film on TikTok, Paramount partnered with Uber to offer teenage girls free rides to the movies; an Instagram takeover with Auli'i Cravalho, the actress reprising the role of Janis; special Snapchat lenses and filters; a YouTube video by teen heartthrob Chris Briney playing with puppies; and crucially, the placement of the trailer for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.”
“I feel like the team got a very clear understanding of the different types of audiences they were trying to reach and where to find them,” Ms. Fey said. “My friend's daughter received a notification from Uber last Wednesday saying that teens will get two free rides to see 'Mean Girls' at the movies this weekend. And I thought, wow, Paramount has been thorough.
So thoroughly, in fact, that the majority of people who came to the cinema were women between the ages of 18 and 34. The film didn't reach many women older than that, including those who probably saw the film when they were young, a sign that the film may have room to grow.
“The audience over 45 was only 7 percent. Only 10 percent were between the ages of 35 and 44,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at Paramount. “So I think there's an opportunity here for us to serve that older audience.”
Mr. Weinstock, for one, is confident that a wide range of ages will appear for the film. “They are fans of the franchise,” he said. “They see this and say, 'Oh, I love my 'Mean Girls.' This looks attractive. ''