Poster © Paramount Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreComedy
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 37 mins
ReleasedApril 30, 2004
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorMark Waters
StarringLindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows
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Mean Girls (2004)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Mean Girls's Details | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 04/19/2004 (Cinerama Dome); 04/30/2004 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 37 mins |
| Budget | $17–18M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Mean Girls's Interests | |
| General | The Burn Book, pink on Wednesdays, Mathletes, Halloween parties, three-way calls, candy cane grams. |
| Music | Rolfe Kent, plus the Jingle Bell Rock talent show routine everybody still knows. |
| Movies | Clueless (1995). Another new girl, another queen bee, another classic. |
| Television | Gossip Girl. Same lunch-table politics, much bigger budget. |
| Heroes | Damian. Knows every clique by heart and has a comment for each one. |
| Mean Girls's Crew | |
| Director | Mark Waters |
| Writers | Tina Fey |
| Producers | Lorne Michaels |
| Cinematography | Daryn Okada |
| Music | Rolfe Kent |
| Edited By | Wendy Greene Bricmont |
| Production | Broadway Video |
| Distributed By | Paramount Pictures |
At one point in Mean Girls, the grown-ups give up on an entire grade and make everybody do trust falls off a stage in the gym, and it’s the most realistic school scene ever filmed. Tina Fey’s script is so sharp that half of it turned into the way people talk. Rachel McAdams plays Regina George like a shark who learned to accessorize, Lacey Chabert’s Gretchen is pure anxiety in hoop earrings, and Amanda Seyfried’s Karen gets the dumbest lines and delivers them like Shakespeare. Lindsay Lohan is fun as the new kid who slowly turns into the thing she was spying on. The problem is the last act, which settles every war with a speech and a hug like a school assembly with a happy ending bolted on. 97 minutes, $130 million worldwide on a reported $17 to 18 million budget. An 8.2 because it’s the funniest field guide to a cafeteria ever written. $401 says you say fetch this week and somebody tells you to stop trying to make it happen.
What works: Tina Fey’s script, Rachel McAdams as a perfect villain and a supporting cast that makes every small part quotable.
What doesn’t: The last act turns into a lesson with a bow on it, and the ending fixes everyone’s problems a little too fast.
Who it’s for: Anyone who survived a high school cafeteria, and everyone who still dresses a certain way on Wednesdays.
Spoilers
Regina gets hit by a school bus, survives, and channels her rage into lacrosse. Cady wins Spring Fling Queen, snaps the plastic crown into pieces and tosses them to the crowd, and the Plastics are basically retired.
Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) has been homeschooled her whole life, most of it in Africa with her zoologist parents, so North Shore High School is a brand new kind of jungle. On day one, art kid Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and her friend Damian (Daniel Franzese) map out the cafeteria and warn her about the Plastics: queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), anxious Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and sweet, clueless Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried). Then the Plastics invite Cady to sit with them, and Janis sees an opportunity. Tina Fey wrote it and plays math teacher Ms. Norbury. Mark Waters directs. Ninety-seven minutes of the sharpest lunch-table politics ever filmed.
Anyone who ever stood in a cafeteria with a tray and nowhere to sit. On Wednesdays, wear pink.
| Lindsay Lohan | Cady Heron |
| Rachel McAdams | Regina George |
| Tina Fey | Ms. Sharon Norbury |
| Tim Meadows | Mr. Ron Duvall |
| Amy Poehler | Mrs. June George |
| Ana Gasteyer | Betsy Heron |
| Lacey Chabert | Gretchen Wieners |
| Lizzy Caplan | Janis Ian |
| Daniel Franzese | Damian Leigh |
| Neil Flynn | Chip Heron |
| Jonathan Bennett | Aaron Samuels |
| Amanda Seyfried | Karen Smith |
| Rajiv Surendra | Kevin Gnapoor |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $130.2M; Domestic box office $86.1M; Opening weekend $24.4M; Profit / loss (est.) +$38.9M; Rotten Tomatoes 84%; CinemaScore A−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 84% (220 reviews); Metacritic 66 / 100; CinemaScore A−; IMDb users 7.1 / 10 (495,357 votes); movie.guru score 7.0.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.