he Jason Statham vehicle The Beekeeper edged out the Mean Girls musical remake at the weekend box office for the first time. Both movies are in their third weekend.
The Beekeeper made a projected $7.4 million in domestic movie theaters between Friday and Saturday, while Mean Girls earned $7.3 million, according to boxofficemojo.com.
The latter is an adaptation of a Broadway musical based on a 2004 cult classic film about a group of high school outcasts attempting to sabotage a cadre of popular girls, while the former — in keeping with most other recent movies starring Statham — follows a gruff anti-hero out for vengeance.
The original Mean Girls made $130 million during its theatrical run — although its cultural significance has long since outpaced its box office grosses — and the remake, with $77 million in worldwide grosses, has a shot at surpassing that figure.
In the meantime, movies generally need to make twice their budget at the box office to turn a profit, and Mean Girls — with a reported budget of $36 million — crossed that threshold in its third weekend.
In third place with a projected $5.9 million was Wonka, the prequel to the 1971 classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which stars Timothee Chalamet in the title role — a part played by Gene Wilder in the original.
The film has shown some impressive staying power after a middling opening weekend, grossing $552.1 million worldwide so far.
