“Mean Girls” is having a day on TikTok

Paramount tried to make “Mean Girls” happen again for a new generation.

Cady Heron, the protagonist of the 2004 comedy "Mean Girls," was once again the new kid in town.

This time, she's not I'm not walking through an intimidating high school. cafeteria full of cliques, but on TikTok, where Paramount Pictures released the film Wednesday in 23 clips ranging from 60 seconds to nearly 10 minutes.

Viewers of the clips have watched Lindsay Lohan wear pink on Wednesday and inform her crush that it was October 3 – a date known as "Mean Girls Day" to film diehards.

"Mean Girls" was the rare studio-sanctioned addition to the thriving ecosystem of pirated films on TikTok. Paramount's decision to release "Mean Girls" was an indication of Hollywood's willingness to play along.

At least, to a point . By Thursday, October 4, Paramount had pulled the film.

TikTok is full of clips from movies and TV shows, despite its rules against copyright infringement. author. In an email, a TikTok representative said the platform is working with studios to remove copyrighted content and will ban accounts that repeatedly violate intellectual property policies.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Uploaders modify clips in an attempt to circumvent restrictions. Edits include cropping or adding a filter. Some change the speed of the movie, making the characters look like they belong in "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

Still, people use the app to watch cut films. and shows that they might otherwise have ignored. Elizabeth Kidd, 31, said she got hooked on “Call the Midwife,” a BBC drama series, thanks to TikTok.

The TikTok version -ified cuts out parts of the show that might test some viewers' patience — and Ms. Kidd was OK with that. “When you just get the character you follow, instead of having to do the entire arc of each episode, it scratches my brain,” she said.

Alex Kim, a 25-year-old TikTok creator and pediatric nurse, said he found himself watching movies without knowing their titles. He described a movie starring Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell that he believed to be "Love, Actually." (Reader, it was “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”)

Also circulating on TikTok? Excerpts from the period romance "Brooklyn," the reality show "Sister Wives" and the Pixar film "Up." Videos under the hashtag #movieclips received nearly 200 billion views on the app.

Even without Paramount's help, it was easy for users to watch the entire one hour and 47 minutes of “Mean Girls” on TikTok. The film was posted in May by an anonymous music video account with more than 300,000 followers, and the clips have been viewed more than 50 million times. The account owner, who did not respond to a request for comment, also allowed viewers to browse "Freaky Friday" and "High School Musical."

Paramount likely knew “Mean Girls” had been uploaded to TikTok, said Alex Alben, a professor of internet and privacy law at UCLA Law School.

A Paramount representative wrote in an email that the daylong broadcast of "Mean Girls" on TikTok was intended to introduce the film to a potential new audience.

Other entertainment companies have experimented with TikTok. In August, Peacock released a 2023 episode of the US version of "Love Island" and the 2022 pilot of "Killing It", a five-part comedy series.

Michael D. Smith, professor at Carnegie Mellon University who