‘Mean Girls’ Surpasses $100 Million at Global Box Office

Mean Girls remains one of the most iconic teen movies, and that’s partly down to the all-around perfect casting choices that were made behind the scenes. Can you even imagine what it would have been like if the lineup of talent had been different!?

FRIDAY UPDATE: Dune: Part Two added 42 international box office markets on Thursday, taking the offshore cume on the Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel to $20.8M in a total 55. This includes two full-days of play and previews in those markets.

Good afternoon Insiders, Jesse Whittock with you in London, where the TV world has decamped this week for a series of screenings. Read on, and sign up for the newsletter here.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios has bought British broadcaster ITV‘s 50% stake in streamer BritBox International for £255 million ($322 million), the companies revealed on Friday. The streamer was founded in 2017 as a joint venture between BBC Studios, which is the commercial arm of the British broadcaster, and ITV. “The transaction will provide net proceeds including loan repayments and accrued dividends and after tax of around £235 million,” the companies said.

EXCLUSIVE: Welcome back to the cinema, everyone.

Sony’s Will Gluck-directed Anyone But You crossed $200M globally over this past weekend, injecting fresh life into the romcom genre and proving yet again that when done right, these films can travel theatrically and bring audiences together for a communal experience. 

Renee Rapp is opening up in a brand new interview!

Naman Ramachandran The Asian Film Awards Academy has revealed several events around the annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. Veteran filmmakers, jury president of this year’s awards, Japan’s Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, will share their filmmaking experiences and artistic concepts in a joint masterclass. Thai star Metawin Opas-Iamkajorn (“2gether” series and film) known as Win, will be honored with the AFA Rising Star Award and the event will host the world premiere of his new film “Under Parallel Skies.” There will also be six themed panel discussions featuring actors Wan Fang (Taiwan), Rachel Leung and Yoyo Tse (both Hong Kong), Tergel Bold-Erdene (Mongolia), Awat Ratanapintha (Thailand) and Shirata Mihaya (Japan).

Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, and James Farrell, the L.A.-based VP of international originals at Prime Video, flew to Madrid this week, with the world premiere of “Red Queen” (“Reina Roja”), the series adaption of the first book in Juan Gómez-Jurado’s hit trilogy, taking place on Monday night. The streamer is rolling off the record-breaking finale of its first weekly live entertainment show “Operación Triunfo,” and has revealed that the top three of the the ten most-watched Spanish Originals of 2023 – “My Fault,” “Awareness” and “Los Farad” – have received on average 80% of streams outside of Spain, reaching a milestone for the international reach of Prime Video’s non-English language content.

The box office may still be doing its best to return to its pre-pandemic heights, but there continue to be encouraging signs all around. The latest is Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” crossing $100 million at the global box office.

Mean Girls has been removed from a new digital streaming version of the movie.As reported by Variety, an updated version of the new film on Amazon Prime Video has edited out a line referring to the phrase “fire crotch”, after Lindsay Lohan publicly said that she had been “hurt” by its inclusion.Directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, and written by Tina Fey, the revamped musical version of Mean Girls was released in cinemas last month.It is an adaptation of the 2018 Broadway musical, which itself is based on the original 2004 movie, also written by Fey.

Ask and thou shall receive!

Naman Ramachandran MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Paramount Global and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have partnered on “In Bloom,” a short film anthology focusing on gender equity. Directed by emerging female filmmakers from Nigeria, Kenya, India, the U.S. and Brazil, the anthology addresses a range of issues including period poverty, child marriage, gender-based violence, HIV self- stigma, family planning and women’s economic empowerment.

EXCLUSIVE: The news when Deadline speaks to Lisa Kramer is the launch of a Paramount+ branded hub with African pay-TV giant MultiChoice. But a conversation with the President, International TV Licensing at Paramount Global Content Distribution (PGCD), offers a much wider insight into the world of TV in 2024.

Refresh for latest…: Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love continued to sing sweet tunes in its sophomore session, adding $15M from 59 international box office markets for a drop of 37% from its above-expectations stellar opening. The overseas cume is now $49.4M for $120.6M worldwide.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Score one for true love! Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s romantic comedy “Anyone But You” hit a notable box office milestone with $200 million globally. It stands as the highest-grossing romantic comedy in years, outperforming recent star-driven entries in the genre like Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s “Ticket to Paradise” ($168 million) and the Sandra Bullock-led “The Lost City” ($192 million). “Anyone But You” is the first rom-com in half a decade to cross $200 million, since 2018’s PG-13 “Crazy Rich Asians” ($239 million), and the first of the R-rated variety since 2016’s “Bridget Jones’s Baby” ($211 million).

Michaela Zee Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” is feeling more than alright at the global box office. The musical biopic has generated $101.1 million worldwide after only 10 days in theaters, including $61.4 million in North America and $39.7 million from 59 international territories. “One Love” retained the top spot on domestic charts in its second weekend of release, grossing $3.7 million on Friday.

Ernst Lubitsch, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski are among eight older titles set to play at next month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival. Lubitsch’s 1920 farce “Kohlhiesel’s Daughters,” will be presented with a live music accompaniment by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Kubrick’s first feature, “Fear and Desire,” has been preserved intact and will play at the festival with nine minutes of previously deleted footage.

Refresh for latest…: Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love brought folks together around the world in its opening frame, singing up a sweet estimated $80M global bow. After coming on strong in early overseas play this week, and as audiences turned a deaf ear to critics, the international box office portion of that is $29M, landing well ahead of expectations.

Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love had offshore audiences getting together and feeling more than alright in Wednesday international box office play. Beginning overseas release yesterday, the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed biopic grossed $4.9M across 10 markets, several of them giving the story of the reggae icon No. 1 status and the biggest or second-biggest launch day ever for a music biopic — in Jamaica, it scored the biggest opening day of all time.