LOS ANGELES -- "Mean Girls," the comedy starring Lindsay Lohan as a student who gets swept up in the backstabbing politics of fashion, love and popularity among high school cliques, came in first at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates yesterday.

Although it stars 17-year-old Lohan, the presence of "Saturday Night Live" star Tina Fey, who also wrote the screenplay, appealed to grown-up moviegoers. Overall, "Mean Girls" got its strength from girl power.

About 75 percent of the audience was female and about half the audience was under 18, said Wayne Lewellen, head of distribution for Paramount, which released the movie.

Three new films debuted with modest results. "Laws of Attraction," a romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore as feuding lawyers who fall in love, earned $7 million to come in fourth. "Godsend," a horror-thriller starring Robert De Niro as a scientist who clones a dead boy, collected $6.9 million, while "Envy," with Ben Stiller as a suburbanite who covets the success of neighbor Jack Black, had $6.1 million. Both films overcame critical pummelings to rank fifth and sixth, respectively.

After the runaway success of "The Passion of the Christ," actor Jim Caviezel followed up his role as Jesus playing a real-life 1930s golfer in "Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius." That film failed to rank in the top 10 in its debut, earning $1.3 million.

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