For Ariana Grande, it really is a case of thank you and next.

Two days after breaking the internet – well, parts of it – with her Thank U, Next music video, Grande has already made her next career move by releasing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of her first No.1 single.

The nearly 10-minute video is part one of three the superstar singer, 25, promises will be released soon.

It gives insiders a look at how two iconic chick-flicks, Legally Blonde and Bring It On, were among four recreated for Thank U, Next, which is a bittersweet ode to old loves.

After it dropped on Saturday at 7am (AEDT), Thank U, Next – with celebrity cameos from Amy Poehler, Jennifer Coolidge and Kris Jenner as the camcorder-toting cool stage mum from Mean Girls – smashed YouTube’s record for most views in the first 24 hours after release.

In just under 22 hours, Grande’s homage to female-driven movies from the early 2000s had gained instant classic status and scored 46 million views.

That beat previous record holder Idol from K-pop supergroup BTS, which had 45.9 million views.

Taylor Swift, with 43.2 million for Look What You Made Me Do, was pushed into third.

By midday on Monday, the runaway video sensation had been watched over 83 million times, and had shout outs from A-listers, including Chrissy Teigen and Australian Troye Sivan, who appears in Thank U, Next.

pic of me hiding in the bathroom from my BULLY @ArianaGrande. thank u, next pic.twitter.com/EC9RRpATMx

— 👼🏼 (@troyesivan) November 30, 2018

Reese Witherspoon, the original Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, gave a perfect score to Grande’s performance of her signature movie move:

Can we please talk about @ArianaGrande's Bend and Snap?! 10/10 nailed it! 💖🙌🏼 #thankunext

— Reese Witherspoon (@ReeseW) November 30, 2018

It was Grande’s idea to reach out to Hollywood’s best-known ‘momager’ Jenner, according to the music video’s director Hannah Lux Davis.

“They’re friends. On set she didn’t take herself too seriously and just got right in there and got into character so effortlessly,” Ms Lux Davis told Glamour.

In an of-its-time Juicy Couture tracksuit, Jenner was the breakout star according to the response on Twitter:

thank u, next, bitch 😉 https://t.co/sAvONID1hn

— Kris Jenner (@KrisJenner) November 30, 2018

Mark Ruffalo (whose 13 Going on 30 was referenced in Thank U, Next) sent Twitter props to Grande.

The music video’s release was a communal event, with its live-streaming format meaning at its peak it was watched simultaneously by 829,000 people.

According to Variety, fans of Grande sent over 516,000 messages during Thank U, Next’s debut, which was also a record for YouTube’s Premiere scheduling feature.

According to YouTube, the initial traffic spike led to delays in comments posting to the video.

With a buildup that went for weeks, the video’s staggering success is a master class in how to build hype.

Fans lapped up hints about its pop culture references and there was fascination with how candid Grande has been on social media about her October broken engagement from Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson.

But not everyone was completely over the moon about the record-breaking video.

When it was revealed Elizabeth Gillies would play her Mean Girls’ role of Cady, Lindsay Lohan hit Twitter to say she was flattered by Grande’s ode, but that she would have been better.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqsKBIFBjyZ/

After the video dropped though, Lohan went back to social media to say she loved Thank U, Next and “all of the original Mean Girls are very flattered.”

One star who the director had hoped to cast but couldn’t get across the line was Matthew Davis, Elle Woods’ ex Warner in Legally Blonde. He had a clash in shooting schedules.