Hollywood continues to profit from recycled IPs like ‘Mean Girls’

“Mean Girls,” the Broadway musical based on the film, hits theaters on Friday. The story’s two teachers, Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, return to their original roles. High school students — including middle school girls — are often not.

This new version joins what is referred to as the “Mean Girls” universe, and is another example of Hollywood’s unwillingness to let any grass grow on a previously successful intellectual property — even if it’s made of plastic.

Mean Girls has always been one of my favorite comfort movies. It all seems so familiar: the high school hierarchy, the athletes, the conversations in the cafeteria.

The original is now 20 years old, and this is an opportunity for Hollywood to make money by bringing an old story to a new audience — not just people who remember the social ups and downs of high school, but the people who live through it.

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

“They just finished middle school, so they can tell you a lot about mean girls, with a small m and a small g,” he said.

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

The film industry has a long tradition of revisiting ideas that have worked before, even if some remakes and sequels end up back in copywriters.

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

“The concern is that it’s a kind of witch-hunt, extracting more original stories,” he said.

At the Senator Theater in Baltimore, owner Kathleen Lyon said there is some audience boredom with films that rely on old intellectual property.

However, they have received calls from people planning to dress up for “Mean Girls” — perhaps wearing pink, and it’s not even a Wednesday.

“So we have a lot of these college-aged kids who are definitely interested in the movie, as well as having some mother-daughter stuff going on,” she said.

Leon said the theater is not doing any special promotions to attract people and will instead let it happen naturally.

As Regina George puts it, you can’t make “fetch” happen.