Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried. The film follows Cady Heron (Lohan), a naïve teenager who transfers to an American high school after years of homeschooling in Africa. Heron quickly befriends two outcasts, with the trio forming a plan to exact revenge on Regina George (McAdams), the leader of an envied clique known as the Plastics.
For other uses, see Mean Girls (disambiguation).Mean Girls
- April 19, 2004 (Cinerama Dome)
- April 30, 2004 (United States)
97 minutes[1]
United States
English
$18 million[2]
$130.1 million[2]
Fey conceived the idea for Mean Girls after reading the self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes. The book describes female high school social cliques, school bullying, and the damaging effect they can have on teenagers. Fey also drew from her own experience at Upper Darby High School, in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, as an inspiration for some of the film's concepts.[3] Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels produced the film. Fey was a long-term cast member and writer for Saturday Night Live. Principal photography took place from September to November 2003. Although set in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, the film was mostly shot in Toronto, Canada.
Mean Girls premiered at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles, California on April 19, 2004, and was released in the United States on April 30, by Paramount Pictures. The film grossed over $130 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics,[4] who praised Waters's direction, Fey's screenplay, its humor, and the performances; especially lauded was Lohan's acting, which earned several accolades, including three Teen Choice Awards and two MTV Movie Awards, and in 2021, was listed as the eleventh-best performance of the 21st century by The New Yorker.
A made-for-television sequel, Mean Girls 2, premiered on ABC Family in January 2011. Mean Girls also spawned various adaptations, including a stage musical, which premiered on Broadway in March 2018, with a film adaptation that was released on January 2024.
Plot[edit]
Sixteen-year-old homeschooled Cady Heron and her research scientist parents return to the United States after 12 years in Africa, settling in Evanston, Illinois. After an intimidating first day at North Shore High School, outsiders Janis Ian and Damian Leigh befriend Cady. They explain the school's various cliques, warning her about the Plastics: wealthy but insecure Gretchen Wieners, sweet but dimwitted Karen Smith, and queen bee Regina George. Cady is invited to sit with them at lunch, so Janis persuades her to infiltrate them.
Cady becomes attracted to senior Aaron Samuels from her calculus class, Regina's ex, and sees the Burn Book, a scrapbook the Plastics fill with cruel rumors about students and faculty. At a Halloween house party, instead of talking to Aaron on Cady's behalf, Regina kisses him in front of her and resumes their relationship. Feeling betrayed, Cady fully commits to Janis' plan to ruin Regina's life, targeting her boyfriend, body, and fellow Plastics. Regina reveals she and Janis were once friends until she accused Janis of being a lesbian and ostracized her.
Attempts to sabotage Regina's skin and wardrobe backfire, so Cady, Janis, and Damian work to turn Gretchen against her. They make her feel excluded by Regina, by sending candy cane-grams to Cady and Karen but not Gretchen. Regina later humiliates her after the Plastics' dance performance at the Winter Talent Show, so Gretchen tells Cady all of Regina's embarrassing secrets. Cady informs Aaron that Regina is cheating on him, prompting them to break up, and tricks her into eating Kalteen nutrition bars to lose weight, but which actually do the opposite. After violating the Plastics' dress code rules by wearing sweatpants, the only thing that fit her, Regina is banished and Cady becomes the new "queen bee".
When Janis invites Cady to her art show, she pretends she will be out of town with her parents but instead throws a house party that night. Drunk, she admits to Aaron that she has been deliberately failing math class so he can tutor her. He rebukes her for becoming as manipulative and image-obsessed as Regina and storms off just as Regina walks in on them. Janis and Damian confront Cady for lying to them about the party and becoming Regina. When Cady accuses Janis of being obsessed with her, Janis declares she is a "mean girl," like Regina, so Janis renounces their friendship.
To get revenge, Regina writes a nasty note of herself in the Burn Book to frame Cady, Karen, and Gretchen. She distributes photocopies of the book throughout school, inciting chaos. Principal Duvall and math teacher Ms. Norbury gather the female junior students in the gym to apologize to each other. Janis reveals her entire plan to destroy Regina, to the students' cheers. Regina storms out, pursued by an apologetic Cady, but is struck by a school bus in front of the school, which fractures her spine.
Ms. Norbury is investigated as a drug dealer due to comments Cady wrote in the Burn Book, so Cady takes full responsibility. Shunned by her peers and distrusted by her own parents, she gradually returns to her old self. In order to earn extra credit, Cady joins the school Mathletes at the state finals, answering the tiebreaker correctly to win the championship. The team arrives at the Spring Fling dance, where Cady is elected queen. However, she tells her classmates that they are all wonderful in their own way, and snaps the plastic tiara and distributes the pieces to others in the crowd, including Janis, Gretchen, and Regina. She re-establishes her connections with Janis and Damian, and makes peace with the Plastics. She also makes up with Aaron and they kiss as they share a slow dance together.
The Plastics disband their senior year; Regina joins the lacrosse team to channel her anger, Karen becomes the school weather reporter, and Gretchen joins the "Cool Asians" clique. Aaron graduates and attends Northwestern University while maintaining a relationship with Cady, and Janis starts a relationship with Mathletes president Kevin Gnapoor. Reflecting on the relative social peace that has taken over North Shore High, Cady notices a trio of new "Junior Plastics".
Home media[edit]
Mean Girls was released on VHS and DVD in North America on September 21, 2004, five months after it opened in theaters. It was released in a special collector's edition, in both widescreen & full screen formats, both including several deleted scenes, a blooper reel, three TV spots, the theatrical trailer, previews and three featurettes.[24] A Blu-ray version of the film was released on April 14, 2009. The film was later re-released on a 15th anniversary Blu-ray in 2019.[25] A limited SteelBook edition of the film was released in September 2022.[26] It will be released on 4K UHD for the first time on April 30, 2024, with the release of the 2024 film.[27][28]
Reception[edit]
Box-office[edit]
In its opening weekend, Mean Girls grossed $24.4 million from 3,159 screens[29] at 2,839 theaters in the United States, ranking number one at the box office and averaging $8,606 per venue.[2] The film closed on September 9, 2004, grossing $86.1 million domestically and $43 million internationally for a total worldwide gross of $129 million.[2] Paramount said the audience was 75% female, and 50% was under the age of 18. Over 90% of moviegoers rated the picture either "excellent" or "very good", and positive notices remained strong even outside the target demographic; ratings were over 80% positive from men in their thirties.[30]
Legacy[edit]
Works inspired by Mean Girls[edit]
In early 2014, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema announced a planned release date of May 8, 2015, for a film adapted from another book penned by Rosalind Wiseman. The film was titled Mean Moms, despite not being announced as a spin-off of Mean Girls. Beth McCarthy-Miller was set to direct while Jennifer Aniston was set to star.[91] However, in May 2014, New Line Cinema pulled the film from its proposed release date of May 2015.[92]
Jonathan Bennett, who portrayed Aaron Samuels, released a cookbook inspired by the movie in 2018 called "The Burn Cookbook: Real Recipes to Feed Your Inner Plastic."[93] The following year, he teamed up with Nocking Point Wines to release a limited rosé wine edition inspired by the film.[94] Ariana Grande parodied the film in the music video for her 2018 song "Thank U, Next". The actors Jonathan Bennett and Stefanie Drummond, who were originally part of the film's cast, appeared in the video. A clip of Cady Heron from the movie was featured in a 2020 Discover Card commercial which aired during the Super Bowl LIV.[95] K-pop singer Sunmi named her song "You Can't Sit with Us" after a quote from the movie.
A Mean Girls-themed pop-up restaurant in Santa Monica called "Fetch" was announced in 2020 as well.[96] Primark launched a loungewear range inspired by the film in October 2019.[97] On October 3, 2020, the Young Veterans Brewing Company released a Mean Girls-themed beer called "Army Pants & Flip Flops".[98] Several Mean Girls-themed events, merchandising products and screenings have been often organized and produced in homage to the film.[99][100][101][102][103]
In August 2020, Screen Junkies released a Honest Trailers episode on the film calling it "the best thing to come out of that era," with Screen Rant's Daniel Gillespie saying: "Mean Girls remains entertaining, funny, and, most importantly, accurate. [...] That relevance almost two decades later proves that Mean Girls is deserving of its classic status,"[104] and Slashfilm's Ethan Anderton writing that the "generation-defining high school movie" not only captures the teenage culture of the early 2000s perfectly, "but it's also hilariously clever for being adapted from a non-fiction parenting advice book [...] Mean Girls is great because it captures that cruel teen vibe perfectly, and it tries to deliver a nice wholesome message to fight it, which kids will laugh at, agree with, and then never do anything about."[105] In September 2020, the Pillsbury Company released a limited edition of Toaster Strudel featuring pink icing and Mean Girls packaging to pay homage to its movie-claimed inventor's daughter, Gretchen Wieners.[106] In October 2023, Nestlé's Coffee Mate announced that a limited-edition pink frosting flavored creamer would be available from January 2024 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film.[107]
In November 2023, Walmart unveiled its annual holiday campaign featuring much of the film's original cast including Lohan, Seyfried, Chabert, Franzese, and Surendra, reprising their roles as adults and recreating the film's scenes with modern twists.[108][109]