Mean Girls

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters, produced by Lorne Michaels, written by Tina Fey and starring Lindsay Lohan. The supporting cast includes Rachel McAdams, Fey, Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Neil Flynn, Jonathan Bennett, and Amanda Seyfried in her feature film debut. The film follows Cady Heron, a naïve teenager who transfers to an American high school after years of homeschooling in Africa, where she quickly befriends outcasts Janis Ian and Damian Leigh, with the former in particular forming a plan to exact revenge on Regina George, the queen bee of an envied clique known as the "Plastics". Mean Girls was produced by Lorne Michaels' production company Broadway Video. Fey conceived the idea for the film after reading the 2002 self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman. The book describes female high school social cliques, school bullying and the resulting damaging effect 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. Principal photography began in September 2003 and ended in November. Although the film is set in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, shooting took place primarily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mean Girls premiered at Pacific's Cinerama Dome in Hollywood on April 19, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 30 by Paramount Pictures. It received widespread critical acclaim for Waters' direction, Fey's screenplay and its humor, and the cast performances (particularly Lohan's). The film was a massive box office success, grossing over US$130 million worldwide against an estimated budget of $17 to $18 million. Lohan won two MTV Movie Awards and three Teen Choice Awards, among numerous other accolades. In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker ranked Lohan's performance as the 11th-best movie performance of the 21st century. A sequel, Mean Girls 2, premiered on ABC Family in January 2011. The film also spawned various adaptations, including a stage musical, which premiered on Broadway in March 2018, with a film adaptation of the musical released in January 2024.