10 Movies That Deceived You Into Buying A Ticket

20 years after Tina Fey and Mark Waters' Mean Girls hit cinemas, it seemed like the perfect time for the beloved comedy to get a do-over. Although Fey returns as the same character and writer, 2024's Mean Girls wasn't advertised as a straight remake. Instead, the posters and trailers promised there would be a "new twist" to the story.

What is this new twist exactly? Well, despite how the new Mean Girls was sold, it isn't a remake of the 2004 version. Instead, it's an adaptation of the Broadway musical. To make the film more marketable, the promotions failed to mention this crucial detail or the fact this iteration of Mean Girls was crammed with songs and dance numbers.

Weirdly, this isn't the first time this happened. Heck, it's not even the first time this year (and 2024 only just got started). The recent adaptation of The Colour Purple was also not advertised as a musical. Neither was Paul King's Wonka, which featured Timothée Chalamet in the title role.

This recent trend is incredibly frustrating, since there are presumably still plenty of musical fans out there who may have wanted to watch the new Mean Girls had they known it was a musical. Although the genre isn't't everyone's cup of tea, it's not a great business model for studios to encourage potential customers to check out their movies by selling them as something else entirely.