Pluto TV just added 3 free movie musicals — including a new take on 'Mean Girls'
Movie musicals are the perfect balm for these unprecedented times. They're not all winners (far from it, usually), but even a bad musical is fun when you're watching it with friends.
Every week, I shine a spotlight on some of the movies worth watching on the best free streaming services. Pluto TV added over 240 new movies in September, but you don't have to scroll through them all to find the good stuff. This week, I'm giving in to my worst grown-up theater kid impulses, and shouting out three movie musical adaptations I find myself revisiting again and again. Are they good? You be the judge. As for me, I'll continue gazing longingly at Renee Rapp, Anna Kendrick, and Gerard Butler — especially now that "Phantom of the Opera," "Mean Girls" and "Pitch Perfect" are streaming free on Pluto TV.
Scroll on to learn more about why these iconic movie musicals deserve a spot on your watchlist, as well as a full list of everything new on Pluto TV this month.
'Mean Girls' (2024)
I've watched 2024's "Mean Girls" a normal amount of times. Reneé Rapp as Regina George is iconic, and I say that as someone who grew up watching the original "Mean Girls" obsessively thanks to a big fat teenage crush on Lindsay Lohan. The 2004 cult classic along with 2011's slightly less charming sequel "Mean Girls 2" were already available on the platform, but now you can see all three movies in the series.
Plotwise, it's the same story as the first: Teenage wallflower Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) learns to navigate the jungle of American high school from the "helpful" tutelage of Regina George (Rapp), leader of a group of mean-spirited popular girls dubbed "The Plastics." They're practically high school royalty, and after their rancid vibes go a little too far, Cady teams up with other outcasts to blow up the Plastics from the inside out.
Watch "Mean Girls" for free on Pluto TV now
'Pitch Perfect' (2012)
Jacob Wysocki is in "Pitch Perfect." That's a sentence that will awaken improv fans like sleeper agents while simultaneously meaning diddly squat to any readers not on the Dropout train. This movie exploded onto the scene in 2012 to make a cappella singing cool. As unnecessary as I find the sequels, the original is still fun to revisit. And, as with "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," it's fun to spot all the cameos you missed the first time around — like Freddie Stroma, aka Vigilante, as the dreamy DJ Anna Kendrick works with.
She stars as Beca, a cynical new student at Barden University, dragged kicking and screaming into the world of competitive a cappella by Brittany Snow's Chloe, Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy, and the rest of the Barden Bellas. They're out to beat their long-time rivals, the Treblemakers (led by "Righteous Gemstones'" Adam DeVine) and finally win the Collegiate A Cappella Championship. The music is quintessential 2010s bops, packed with plenty of mash-ups that will get stuck in your head for days to come.
Watch "Pitch Perfect" for free on Pluto TV now
'The Phantom Of The Opera' (2004)
Easily the most self-indulgent pick among the three (who am I kidding, this whole dang list is self-indulgent), "The Phantom of the Opera" is my favorite guilty pleasure movie musical adaptation. Is Gerard Butler the strongest Phantom performance I've ever seen? God now. But the whole vibe of the movie is so deeply rooted in 2000s nostalgia for me — easily the most emo rendition is recent memory — that I can't help but swoon alongside Emmy Rossum's Christine. She sings circles around the bunch, but Patrick Wilson of the "Insidious" and "Conjuring" franchises fame holds his own well enough as our lovable third wheel of the love triangle, Viscount Raoul.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's other famous stage play, "The Phantom of the Opera" follows a young singer named Christine who becomes the obsession of the building's resident cryptid: the Phantom of the Opera. He poses as her angel of music, a helpful muse nudging her career along — until he nudges a chandelier onto another singer unfit for the lead role, in his opinion. Christine takes the singer's place, he steals her away, and beautiful tragedy befalls them all.
Watch "The Phantom of the Opera" for free on Pluto TV now
Everything new on Pluto TV in September 2026
Comedy
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- 21 Jump Street (2012)
- 22 Jump Street
- 30 Minutes Or Less
- 48 Hrs.
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
- Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
- The Addams Family
- Addams Family Values
- Airplane!
- Airplane II: The Sequel
- Another 48 Hrs.
- Bad Teacher (2011)
- Beau Is Afraid
- Beavis And Butt-Head Do America
- Bebe’s Kids
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Beverly Hills Cop II
- Beverly Hills Cop III
- Beverly Hills Ninja
- The Big Lebowski
- Billy Madison
- Blue Streak
- Boomerang
- Booty Call
- Caddyshack
- Can’t Hardly Wait
- Cheech & Chong’s Still Smokin’
- Coming To America
- Crocodile Dundee
- Daddy’s Home
- Death At A Funeral (2010)
- Dick (1999)
- The Dictator
- Dinner For Schmucks
- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
- Down To Earth
- Drillbit Taylor
- Eurotrip
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- The First Wives Club
- Fletch
- Flirting With Disaster
- Friday
- Friday After Next
- The Golden Child
- Good Burger
- The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
- Guess Who
- Happy, Texas
- Harlem Nights
- Head Of State
- Here Comes The Boom
- Holmes And Watson
- Hot Fuzz
- Hot Rod
- The House Bunny
- House Party
- House Party 2
- House Party 3
- Jack And Jill
- Jackass: The Movie
- Jackass Number Two
- Jackass 3
- Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
- Joe Dirt
- John Tucker Must Die
- Just Go With It
- Kids In The Hall Brain Candy
- Kingpin
- The Ladies Man (2000)
- Last Vegas
- Life After Beth
- Little Man
- Little Nicky
- The Longest Yard (1974)
- The Longest Yard (2005)
- The Love Guru
- Major League
- Mean Girls (2024)
- Mr. Mom
- Next Friday
- Norbit
- Old School
- Overboard (1987)
- Overboard (2018)
- Planes, Trains And Automobiles
- The Players Club
- Private Parts
- Rat Race (2001)
- Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion
- Scary Movie
- Scary Movie 2
- Scary Movie 3
- Semi-Pro
- So I Married An Axe Murderer
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
- Swiss Army Man
- There’s Something About Mary
- Things Are Tough All Over
- This Is The End
- Tropic Thunder
- Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
- What’s Your Number?
- Zoolander
- Zoolander 2
Action and crime
- Armored
- Ben-Hur (2016)
- Bound
- Dreamland
- Eagle Eye
- Echo Boomers
- End Of Watch
- Good Time
- The Green Hornet
- John Wick
- John Wick: Chapter 2
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
- John Wick: Chapter 4
- Machete Kills
- Mob Town
- Most Wanted
- Narc
- Night Of The Sicario
- Overdrive
- Paid In Full (2002)
- Parker (2013)
- Patriot Games
- Pulp Fiction
- The Quick And The Dead (1995)
- The Rhythm Section Sabotage (2014)
- Seven Psychopaths Strangers (2024)
- Street Fighter (1994)
- We Were Soldiers
Drama
- American Beauty
- Baby Boy
- Bob Marley: One Love
- Bottom of the 9th
- Brian's Song (1971)
- Eighth Grade
- Flight
- The Florida Project
- Good Will Hunting
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- The Iron Claw
- The Last Castle
- The Legend of Bagger Vance
- Menace II Society
- Radio
- Rounders
- The Truman Show
- World Trade Center
Romance and musical
- Beastly
- Brown Sugar
- Country Strong
- Dirty Dancing
- Failure to Launch
- The Fighting Temptations
- Fools Rush In (1997)
- Footloose (1984)
- Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Happily
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back
- Indecent Proposal
- Labor Day
- The Last Kiss
- Love and Basketball
- Love Jones
- The Notebook
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Pitch Perfect
- The Terminal
- Two Can Play That Game
- Two Weeks Notice
- View from the Top
- What Men Want
Horror and thriller
- Basic Instinct
- The Blackcoat's Daughter
- Bones and All
- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- Breakdown
- The Dead Zone
- Double Jeopardy (1999)
- Enemy
- Fatal Attraction
- The Final Girls
- From Dusk Till Dawn
- From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
- From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
- The Ghost and the Darkness
- The Gift (2000)
- I Know What You Did Last Summer
- Idle Hands
- Jennifer's Body
- Joy Ride
- Lamb
- Panic Room
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
- Pet Sematary (2019)
- Pretty Boy
- Primal Fear
- Relic
- Rings
- Silent hill
- A Simple Plan
- Slice
- Smile (2022)
- Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
- Stephen King’s Silver Bullet
- Stephen King’s Thinner
- Tales From The Darkside: The Movie
- Trust (2025)
- Urban Legend
- Urban Legends: Bloody Mary
- Urban Legends: The Final Cut
- Vampire In Brooklyn
- The Witch
Sci-fi and fantasy
- The Adventures Of Tintin
- After Earth
- After Yang
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- The Astronaut’s Wife
- Breach
- Cloverfield
- Coneheads
- District 9
- Dragonslayer
- Galaxy Quest
- Hancock
- High Life
- Mars Attacks!
- Monster Trucks
- The Monster Squad (1987)
- Multiplicity
- Sleepy Hollow
- The Spiderwick Chronicles
- Spontaneous
- Teen Wolf (1985)
- Terminator Genisys
- Total Recall
- Under The Skin
- Universal Soldier (1992)
- War Of The Worlds (2005)
- Zone 414
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