It doesn’t take a Mathlete to know a “Mean Girls” remake adds up for Hollywood

“Mean Girls,” the movie based on the Broadway musical based on the movie, is out in theaters Friday. The educators in the story, Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, are back in their original roles. The high schoolers — including the mean girls — are mostly not.

This remake joins what has been referred to as the “Mean Girls” universe, and it’s another example of how Hollywood doesn’t like to let any grass grow on previously successful intellectual property — even if it’s made of plastic.

“Mean Girls” has always been one of my go-to comfort movies. It all feels so familiar: the high school hierarchy, the Mathletes, the conversations in the cafeteria. 

The original is now 20 years old, and this is a chance for Hollywood to make money by presenting an old story to a new audience — not just people who remember the social roller coaster of high school, but people who are living through it. 

Sam Adams writes about film for Slate and said his 14-year-old daughter asked to go see the movie with her friends. 

“They just got through middle school, so they could tell you a whole lot about mean girls, with small m, small g,” he said. 

Adams said they’ve seen the original and they know one of the new stars, Reneé Rapp, from TikTok. She plays Regina George in the new musical version of the movie. 

The film industry has a long tradition of revisiting ideas that worked before, even if some of the remakes and sequels end up being relegated to the burn book.

But Adams said this isn’t just part of what Hollywood does now — it’s everything that Hollywood does now. 

“The concern is that it does kind of chase away, squeeze out more original stories,” he said.

At the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, owner Kathleen Lyon said there is some audience fatigue with movies that rely on old IP.

Still, they have gotten calls from people who are planning to dress up for “Mean Girls” — maybe wear pink, even it’s not a Wednesday. 

“So we have a lot of these sort of college-age kids that are definitely interested in the movie, as well as sort of like some mother-daughter date things happening,” she said.

Lyon said the theater isn’t doing any special promotions to get people in and instead will leave that to happen organically. 

In the words of Regina George, you can’t make “fetch” happen.