Everyone is watching television on TikTok. Cillian Howley explores why Gen-Z is binging in bite size chunks.
Millions are binge watching movies and shows on TikTok in bite size clips. But why? Hollywood has never been more hostile to new ideas. Only blockbuster remakes and reboots seem to make a splash with audiences these days. Besides infrequent event cinema releases, viewers are more than willing to wait for a film to release on smaller screens. In 2025, that includes phone screens. Entire films and television episodes are being uploaded to TikTok, unauthorised, in twenty or so parts. The videos are often flipped, filtered and sped up to avoid copyright strikes. Still, endless excerpts of Young Sheldon are being widely viewed on TikTok despite its availability on Netflix.
Despite its assault to the senses, Young Sheldon is an extremely popular show.
Its success, however undeserved, translating to TikTok makes more sense in comparison to failed movies that gain traction on the app. Flops are given a second life on TikTok. Unlike in the ‘80s and ‘90s when VHS releases could turn bombs into cult classics, these films remain relatively nameless. Clips from the 2021 film Queenpins circulate on TikTok all the time, but most would struggle to name it without a Google search. Still, each time Kristen Bell appears in a bad wig (not to be confused with Kristen Wiig), one can count on her to start excessively couponing.
Alas, it is rarely a hidden gem by a great director or the indie cinema underdog that gets an audience on TikTok. More often than not, a film or show with a recognisable face, a nonsensical plot and middling Rotten Tomatoes score is bolstered. That movie where Chris Evans has a seven year old daughter who can do complicated algebra in her head is always making the rounds. Good movies must not appease TikTok algorithms nor Gen Z attention spans.
The blow up of bite-size binging received widespread coverage following a shock move by Paramount. During the promotional campaign of the musical remake Mean Girls (2024), the noughties original was uploaded to TikTok by the studio for a day. The move highlighted not only an awareness but an endorsement of this trend by Hollywood. Movie executives know Gen Z congregate on TikTok and they are willing to meet us there even if it involves cutting a movie into twenty six parts. Creatives criticised the strategy as it allowed studios to avoid paying royalties while still profiting off their work.
This is not the only recent indicator that show business is now catering to the ever-decreasing attention spans of young people today. Netflix has released shows including You and Wednesday in multiple parts. Why does an eight part series need two releases? Netflix might be milking their content or they could be adapting to how Gen Z consumes media. Is the binging model of Netflix already an outdated concept? Other than money, TikTok and Netflix value our time above all else. It is their true lifeblood. These companies will only stoop further to please this chronically online generation, currently facing an epidemic of brainrot.
Besides ethically dubious corporations, who is posting these movies and television shows on TikTok? Bot accounts are mostly responsible for publishing this content. The assumed goal is monetisation. Uploading an entire movie is a lazy way to attain virality; feeding TikTok more videos increases chances at making it onto For You pages. Never mind the fact that these accounts are orchestrated in their hundreds and thousands somewhere in the world. This practice is pirating with a few more steps and therefore illegal and in violation of TikTok’s rules. Still, these accounts continue to prosper.
No doubt, Hollywood will take all the wrong lessons from this. Barbie was a hit so bring on the toy movies but not women-led blockbusters. This new way of consuming media through TikTok has the entertainment industry scrambling to turn memes into movies. Michael Bay is set to direct a Skibidi Toilet movie - whatever that means. Instead, studios should be asking why young people are watching their content in shorter, digestible chunks.
Running times on streaming have gotten out of hand. Why is an episode of a comedy an hour long? TikTok is doing the dirty work when Hollywood needs to trim the fat at the source.