Why Mean Girls Wasn’t Marketed as a Musical

The new Mean Girls movie is now in theaters, with the film performing well both with critics and at the box office. However, if you didn’t realize that the film currently in theaters is actually a musical — specifically an adaptation of the musical adaptation of the original Mean Girls film — that’s actually not a surprise, at least from a marketing perspective. Paramount didn’t explicitly market the film as a musical and now Paramount’s president of global marketing Marc Weinstock is explaining why.

Speaking with Variety, Weinstock explained that the marketing avoided leaning hard into the musical aspect of Mean Girls simply because people aren’t always open minded about musicals.

“We didn’t want to run out and say it’s a musical because people tend to treat musicals differently,” he explained. “This movie is a broad comedy with music. Yes, it could be considered a musical but it appeals to a larger audience. You can see in [trailers for] Wonka and The Color Purple, they don’t say musical either. We have a musical note on the title, so there are hints to it without being overbearing.

Weinstock also had an explanation for why the film’s premiere took place on a Monday instead of a Wednesday — the latter of which would have tied nicely to one of the film’s iconic lines, “on Wednesdays we wear pink.”

“That was due to talent availability,” he said. “It’s a boring answer.”

What Is Mean Girls About? 

You can check out the official description for Mean Girls here: “From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, Mean Girls. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called ‘The Plastics,’ ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.” 

Will the Mean Girls Movie Music Differ From Broadway? 

The Broadway show’s music was created by Jeff Richmond who previously spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming film and teased some changes to the Broadway songs.

“What we’re trying to do [with the movie] is take the score that sounds like a Broadway score — in a good way — and [give] the movie a fresher palette,” Richmond explained. “To make it sound more like stuff you want to listen to on Spotify, as opposed to when you’re sitting eighth row center at a Broadway theater or the Pantages. It’s kind of making it a fresher, younger take on the whole thing. We’re kind of reinvented the music for the movie, so it’s really fun.”

Mean Girls is in theaters now.