Paramount angered writers, producer and fans of “Mean Girls” on Tuesday by sharing the entire 2004 comedy on TikTok in 23 parts.
“As the WGA strike comes to a close, studios find another way not to pay us for our work (and if you think people won’t watch the film this way, you’re obvs not on TikTok),” wrote “It Follows” producer Rebecca Green on Tuesday.
“Every filmmaker dreams about cutting up their film into 23 parts. Congrats!” said “The Tale” producer Mynette Louie.
Like Spotify, TikTok does pay royalties to musical artists, labels and distributors with licensing contracts. However, the amount of money being shared directly with artists has been criticized by musicians including Snoop Dogg.
The rapper voiced his support for the WGA strike in May, saying, “Some of these artists are streaming millions and millions and millions and millions of f—king streams and they don’t got no millions of dollars in the pot.”
“Another thing that occurred to me about the whole Mean Girls Tiktok thing. Since residuals are part of what the studio makes from its portfolio, it seems they screwed themselves out of profit just to avoid paying residuals. And that is a evil I cannot fathom,” wrote @TurboQueerJC on X on Tuesday.
“Paramount, what’s your intended strategy when releasing an ENTIRE FILM (Mean Girls on TikTok 0with no hope of earning $ or paying out residuals on THE DAY that SAG and the AMPTP resume talks to end the strike? Seems like self-sabotage. Do you not want to return to work?” wrote Chad Garrett of Forerunner Productions.
Writer BJ Colangelo, who wrote in August about the plethora of first-release movies being streamed on the platform, said, “‘Mean Girls’ being released in 23 parts on TikTok is bad, actually.”
“The utter disrespect,” responded film critic Nguyên Lê. “This is quite literally the dumbest f–kng idea I’ve ever seen,” tweeted @Editor66.
