Survey Reveals Iowa’s Top 5 Favorite ‘Mean Girls’ Characters

The new Mean Girls movie is out in theaters, and while the year is still young, it's become one of the most successful films to start 2024. Originally slated to be a Paramount+ exclusive, the musical adaptation of the Broadway musical hit theaters and has pulled in over $60 million. It's prompted a lot of people to go back and rewatch the original 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams.

Mean Girls has stood the test of time thanks to its delightful mix of comedy, satire, and relatable high school drama. The musical seems to be catching on, at least judging from its social media buzz, which has prompted the folks at Journo Research, in conjunction with BetUsaCasinoSites, to conduct a survey to determine the most popular Mean Girls characters in every state.

Mean Girl Methodology:

Folks at Journo Research examined Google keyword search trends for a dozen characters from the hit movie to compile the results of this survey. They definitely hit all the major characters for both film installments too:

For each of the 12 film characters listed below, Google Keywords search volumes over the past 12 months were found for each state in the US and the US nationally. The top 5 Mean Girls characters in each state were then determined, ranked by volume per month:

 

Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith, Janis Ian, Cady Heron, Aaron Samuels, Glen Coco, Kevin Gnapoor, Shane Oman, Ms. Norbury, June George, Taylor Wedell, Principal Duvall - per Journo Research

 

Iowa's Favorite Mean Girls:

Below are the top five most popular Mean Girls characters based on the volume of their Google searches. I've also included the actor/actress who played the character in both the 2004 and 2024 films, respectively:

1. Regina George (played by Rachel McAdams/Reneé Rapp): an average 601 monthly searches
2. Gretchen Wieners (played by Lacey Chabert/Bebe Wood): an average 249 monthly searches
3. Janis Ian (played by Lizzy Caplan/Auliʻi Cravalho): an average 168 monthly searches
4. Aaron Samuels (played by Jonathan Bennett/Christopher Briney): an average 100 monthly searches
5. Glen Coco (unseen in both films): an average 80 monthly searches

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I find it quietly funny that Glen Coco, a character who is referenced in name only in both films, made top five over the film's protagonist, Cady Heron. Cady was thoughtfully portrayed by both Lindsay Lohan in the original and Angourie Rice in the new movie, so the fact that she's omitted, at least when it comes to the most Googled Mean Girls characters in Iowa, is quite the omission.

Regina George has become one of the most iconic high school movie villains there is, so it's not surprising to see that she tops the list.

Comments on the Findings:

A spokesperson from BetUsaCasinoSites commented on the findings and even quantified how many searches the most popular characters received:

Regina George is by far the most popular Mean Girls character, with a total average 95,666 monthly searches across the US. Gretchen Wieners is the second most popular character across the states, with a total average 33,750 monthly Google searches.

 

Although it's been almost two decades since Mean Girls was released, the film is showing no sign of going out of fashion, as it continues to be a worldwide phenomenon.

 

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We look forward to seeing how Mean Girls’ popularity will grow following the new film. - BetUsaCasinoSites