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98 Degrees on New Music, ’90s Style and Being a ‘Blue-Collar Boy Band’ on September 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm Us Weekly

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In their heyday, 98 Degrees sold nearly 15 million records, had four top 10 singles and regularly graced the covers of teen magazines alongside the likes of ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys. Despite their outsize fame, Ohio natives Drew and Nick Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre say they never took success for granted — or stopped hustling. “We call ourselves the blue-collar boy band,” shares Drew. Adds Nick, “Our mindset was always, ‘You might out-dance us, you might out-sing us, but you sure as hell won’t out-work us.’ We got discovered the old-school way, singing for money and food. I’m very proud of how we came up.”

More than two decades later, Drew, 47, Nick, 49, Jeff, 50, and Justin, also 50, are still grinding. Now managed by Johnny Wright of Wright Entertainment Group, they’re working on new music, embarking on a 25th Anniversary Tour and, they tell Us exclusively, rerecording their masters. But today, they’re better able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. “We’re more relaxed,” says Jeff, the band’s founding member. “Everything is more fun.” The guys sat down with Us at the Hotel Covington in Covington, Kentucky, to talk about their early days, returning to the studio and their unbreakable bond.

It’s been 25 years since you guys broke out onto the scene. How exciting is that?
DREW It’s one of these moments where you have to look back. It’s like, “Has it really been that long?” In some ways, it seems like just yesterday that we got together.

How did you initially form the band?
JEFF We started it ourselves. You didn’t have YouTube or American Idol back then. I went to L.A. with some other guys, and they dropped out. Then I was introduced to Nick. When I heard his voice, I was like, “I’ve got to get this guy out here.” I didn’t even know what he looked like…
DREW Otherwise he never would’ve called him!
JEFF I tricked him into coming out to L.A. I lied and said I had a lot of stuff going on even though I had nothing. He brought Justin and Drew with him, and that’s how we got started.

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“We never really thought of ourselves as a boy band,” says Nick. “We just got swept up in the current.” John Chapple/MEGA

Did you instantly know that you had something special?
DREW We had something different. We pride ourselves on our vocals, and we’d rehearse nonstop, just a capella and harmony. It didn’t come without a lot of effort and hard work.
NICK There are a lot of great singers out there, but it doesn’t automatically lend itself to harmonizing. So I think when people heard our harmonies, it was like, “Wow, OK.” It set us apart from other bands that were out trying to do the same thing.

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Related: BTS! 1D! ‘NSync! Look Back at the 22 Biggest Boy Bands of All Time

Man power! Us looks back at music’s most successful all-male groups, from One Direction to the Backstreet Boys

How did you decide on the name 98 Degrees?
DREW We voted on it. We wanted something that represented the mood and tone.

Can you share some band names that didn’t make the cut?
JUSTIN There’s a long list. Spontaneous Combustion was a personal favorite.
NICK I still stand by Inertia. What did we start out as?
JEFF It was Just Us. First Four was another one.
DREW Which was terrible. [There was also] Next Issue.

You had your first hit with “Invisible Man” in 1997. Did it feel like success came quickly?
JEFF It felt like it took forever. We got signed in ‘95 and recorded all of ’95 and ’96. We came out in ’97, but we weren’t really marketed. We weren’t on MTV. Our label was Motown, and they didn’t want to put our pictures on anything — they wanted to keep this mystique that we were an R&B group. It took another album and TRL to come out, and then that exposure happened in ’98 and ’99.
JUSTIN Once you’re signed, you realize, “Oh, that doesn’t mean you made it.” It’s still a lot of work ahead.

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What was the moment when you felt like you’d finally made it?
NICK We were in Asia touring, and I vividly remember I was in the hallway of our hotel, and Jeff came out and said, “‘Because of You’ just went Top 10.”
DREW Then you’re like, “Alright, are we going to be a one-hit wonder?” So you have to continue grinding and promoting.
NICK We didn’t have the easiest road. We weren’t put together by some magical guy putting pieces in.

“We felt pressure amongst each other just to make it,” says Jeff. “We were pretty hard on each other.” John Chapple/MEGA

There were a lot of boy bands vying to be No. 1. Did you feel any rivalry with them?
JEFF We thought we were more of an R&B vocal group. Not to disparage those bands — we love them, we were friends with all of them — but we thought we were different. Once the media started saying, “Well, you’re like Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync,” then we were like, “Oh, do we need to start dancing more?”
NICK It was a blessing and a curse. There was so much momentum behind the boy band craze, and it was nice to get caught up in that, but it also caused pressure.

To achieve a certain level of success?
DREW There was this completely unattainable bar that was set. People don’t come out and sell 2 million records in the first week — that’s an anomaly.
JEFF There was an article about how our next record was about to come out after Britney [Spears] and Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync consecutively broke records, and it said 98 Degrees is set to do it next. Sadly, we only sold 536,000 records in the first week, and it was a big disappointment.
DREW At this point, we have a better perspective on it all. We enjoy the moment more. We put out projects we’re happy with, and whatever happens with them, happens.

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Which song are you most proud of?
NICK “Invisible Man” will always have a special place in my heart. It brings back memories of calling the radio station as you’re driving your motorhome down the highway, requesting your own song.
JEFF They’d call you out. “Is this 98 Degrees?” I hung up the phone immediately. “Because of You” is also a good one. Once that took off, we were everywhere.

Related: ’90s Pop Stars: Then and Now

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From Britney Spears to ‘NSync, our favorite ’90s pop stars have changed so much over the years — click through to see how time has treated the singers

What was that like — being thrust into the spotlight?
DREW
It was awesome but also overwhelming. I kicked a hole in a wall at one venue because I was so frustrated. I had to pay for the repairs!

Did you all keep each other in check?
NICK You become a brotherhood in all the best ways — and sometimes not the best ways. You lean on each other. To have my own brother in the band was very cool for me — he might say it wasn’t for him [laughs] — but it’s fun to go through it together. Getting chased out of a mall in the Philippines — if you were by yourself, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Clockwise: Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, Jeff Timmons John Chapple/MEGA (4)

Any major fights through the years?
DREW [Most] of our disagreements were about which song should be a single or which deal to sign. It wasn’t like, “Oh, you stole money from me.”
NICK There was the Kinder egg incident.
JEFF We were in Germany. I was bored. At every stop, I’d get Kinder eggs — these chocolate eggs with a prize in them. I was opening them and playing with the prizes, but not eating the chocolate. It was super-annoying to the guys — chocolate and wrappers everywhere. They kept stepping on them. They wanted to kill me.
NICK If anything, we’re guilty of being too nice to each other. We probably could’ve used a few more air-the-dirty-laundry fights.

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What led to your 2002 hiatus?
JUSTIN We’d just been on the road for so long. We were ready to have more of our own lives outside of the group.
What brought you back together?
DREW We had an opportunity to go back out on the road with New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men. That was the nudge we needed.

Do you guys ever watch your old music videos?
DREW I went back before this new run of shows. There were moments when I was like, “Oh, my God, I forgot that happened!” We have kids who are old enough to understand it. They’re like, “What was that?” Well, kids, this is a VCR with a VHS tape. [Laughs.] It’s fun to walk down memory lane.

Any regrettable fashion moments?
NICK
So many to choose from. It was bad skin, bad outfits, a lot of bad hair. It was just a lot of bad choices.

Do your kids listen to your music?
DREW They don’t listen to it at all. For the most part, It’s other people that I work with who are of that age that look up the videos on YouTube and think it’s fun. My kids are just like, “Oh my God, how many concerts do we have to sit through?”
NICK My kids hate when I sing.
JEFF My kids like it a bit, but they’re over it — they’ve been to too many concerts. They like Little Uzi Vert or whatever.

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“It ranks up there as one of our worst fashion moments,” Drew says about their looks at the 1998 Mulan premiere. Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images

Justin, are you still living the bachelor life?
JUSTIN My girlfriend has a son, so it feels a bit like there’s a fatherly role — but fortunately, it’s more like I get to be the cool dad.

How’s it being back on the road?
DREW We have a different take on touring now. It’s about [figuring out] what amount of time we feel comfortable being away and how we can route the tour so we can bring our families.

Who forgets the lyrics most when you’re performing?
DREW Nick. In his defense, he has the most lyrics to sing!
NICK But I’ll always sing something! I’ll improvise. It may not be the actual lyric, and our fans will call me out, but it’s proof we’re singing live.

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How do your wives feel about you being on tour?
DREW They’re like, “Go, bye!” [Laughs.] They’re supportive. There are moments our families like to be a part of, and those are the moments you really hold on to.

We’ve all grown and evolved and changed and challenged ourselves,” says Drew. “So we’re bringing new skill sets into the group now.” John Chapple/MEGA

Tell Us about your new music.
JEFF We’ve tried a few things that might not have been our lane. And you see these different things, and the evolution of music. The new music has new sounds in it, but I think the inspiration is our old stuff.
DREW Yeah, we sing love songs. Ultimately, that’s what we do. That’s what we’re most comfortable with, and that’s what we’re best doing.
JEFF My wife is a boy band fan now. Sadly she’s more of a New Kids On The Block fan, but that’s a good test market. So I will run songs by her and she’ll say yay or nay.

You’re rerecording songs as well.
JEFF Record companies traditionally do deals where they take percentages of everything. Ours, EX1, is partnering with us and allowing us to own parts of our masters, and we’re re-recording some of our old hits. It’s exciting.

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All of you are working on solo projects as well across entertainment and business.
DREW We’re all exploring other opportunities. In the past [being in the band] was all-consuming. We learned that you have to have other things that inspire you and move you outside of just this group. So yeah, we’re all hustling on our own too.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?
DREW I have a side business with my wife. And my son and daughter are a part of that as well.
JEFF Just normal dad stuff. When you do this for so long, that’s kind of our vacation — getting to be with your family and experiencing sports and choir and cheerleading.
NICK My favorite thing to do with my kids is taking them to school. It’s just the things you talk about, the conversations that come up, the laughing, the music.

“So many parents tell us they were happy to have music that they didn’t feel awkward hearing in the car,” shares Justin. John Chapple/MEGA

There’s a rumor that the Super Bowl halftime show will feature a bunch of boy bands — 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men. Would you be up for that?
NICK
We’d love for that to happen.

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Boy bands are having a resurgence. Why do you think fans keep coming back for more?
DREW I think it’s just going back to a simpler time. The music was fun. The world seemed a bit safer and less divided, and the shows are upbeat and energetic and bring joy to people.

Related: 2000s Pop Stars, Then and Now: Hilary Duff and More

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What do you hope your legacy will be?
JEFF Our reputation and our work ethic — as well as the music — those are the key things.
DREW We’ve always tried to treat people well. We went through this industry, and we took our lumps, but we did it with dignity and respect.
JUSTIN Many parents talk about how they were just happy to have music that they didn’t feel awkward hearing in the house and in the car, so I think that we’re proud of that.

You’ve got the new tour, a new label and new music. What else do you hope to accomplish together?
DREW We want to do music and a show we’re proud of and just appreciate the ride.
NICK If we start sucking, we’ll be like, “OK, guys. it’s time to hang it up.” But as long as we still feel like we can have fun with it and be good at it, why stop?

In their heyday, 98 Degrees sold nearly 15 million records, had four top 10 singles and regularly graced the covers of teen magazines alongside the likes of ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys. Despite their outsize fame, Ohio natives Drew and Nick Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre say they never took success for granted — 

​   Us Weekly Read More 

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Entertainment

STREAMING PREMIERE · JUNE 13, 2026

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Laughter Meets Inspiration: Our Ladies Show Lands on The Roku Channel

A bold new sketch comedy series for women premieres June 13 across the U.S., U.K., and Canada — arriving on the back of a festival-winning run that has critics and audiences already paying attention.

It isn’t every day a brand-new comedy arrives already wearing a row of trophies. Our Ladies Show does. The seven-episode inspirational sketch comedy series — created, written by, and starring Christin Jezak — begins streaming on The Roku Channel on Friday, June 13, 2026, available free to viewers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Produced in partnership with global media services leader Encompass Digital Media, the series sets out to do something rare in today’s streaming landscape: make women laugh out loud and leave them lifted. In a media moment crowded with noise and cynicism, Our Ladies Show is a deliberate counterweight — comedy with a conscience, built for women of every age and background.

A Show Built Around Real Life — and Real Laughs

Each of the seven episodes opens with a monologue from one of the cast members introducing the theme, then rolls into three or more sketches that hit the subject from every comedic angle. The series tackles the things women actually carry: holding grudges, comparison, beauty, patience, gift giving, the importance of community, and dealing with anxiety.

The comedy comes from a place of warmth rather than mockery — a “laugh at ourselves” spirit that runs through a gallery of unforgettable characters: a nosey neighbor, an overwhelmed mom, relentlessly optimistic flight attendants, beauty pageant winners past their prime, and a crew of unruly campers with a counselor who simply cannot hold it together.

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Then the show does something most sketch series don’t. In the final segment of every episode, the cast gathers in a living-room setting and invites the audience in — sharing real inspiration drawn from the theme, the sketches, and their own personal stories. It’s the moment the laughter turns into something that stays with you.

The Women Behind the Show

Our Ladies Show brings together three performers with serious range:

  • Christin Jezak — creator, writer, and star (Miracle at Manchester, Raising Hope, Jimmy Kimmel Live!)
  • Hillary Hawkins — (Primal, Nick Jr.’s Play Along, Gullah Gullah Island)
  • Sarah Hernandez — (Nefarious, Unplanned, House of Payne)

“In a world with so much division and depression, I hope women of all ages and backgrounds will watch this show, laugh, be reminded of how beautiful, unique, and loved they are, and remember how much we need each other.”— Christin Jezak, Creator & Star

Already a Festival Favorite

The series’ recurring long-form sketch, Neighborhood Watch, didn’t arrive quietly. Originally released as a web series and revamped for Our Ladies Show with new footage, sound, and music, it has been sweeping the festival circuit:

  • 🏆 Best Webseries — 2026 New Media Film Festival (Los Angeles)
  • 🏆 Best Web/TV Series — Paris Film Awards
  • 🏆 Best Web Series — Dallas Movie Awards
  • 🏅 Additional wins at the London Movie Awards, Florence Film Awards, and Hollywood Gold Awards
  • 🎬 Official Selection — 2026 Harvard Divinity School Film Fest
  • ⭐ Finalist — Houston Comedy Film Festival
  • 📣 Three nominations — 2025 Content Christian Media Conference, including Best Actress in a TV and Web Series nods for both Christin Jezak and Sarah Hernandez

Where and When to Watch

Our Ladies Show premieres Friday, June 13, 2026, streaming on The Roku Channel — the home of premium and free entertainment — in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. All seven episodes deliver the series’ signature blend of sharp sketch comedy and genuine encouragement.

Click Here To Get Tickets

Watch the trailer now on your platform of choice:

For more information, visit www.ourladiesshow.com and follow @ourladiesshow on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.


About Christin Jezak

Christin Jezak has worked for over 15 years in the entertainment industry. She created and stars in Our Ladies Show and the award-winning web series Neighborhood Watch. She produced the EWTN TV program For the Sake of the Gospel and the all-women web series Ladies Keepin’ It Real, played Dr. Sam in Miracle at Manchester (starring Dean Cain, Daniel Roebuck, and Eddie McClintock), and voices Agnes in the podcast Confessions of a Catholic Single. She held a lead role in a short film for NTT Data directed by Academy Award–winning cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, has co-starred on Raising Hope, and appeared in Jimmy Kimmel sketches and a Grubhub Super Bowl commercial.

About The Roku Channel

Roku pioneered streaming on TV and is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico by hours streamed (Hypothesis Group, Dec. 2025). The Roku Channel is the home of premium and free entertainment, alongside Roku’s Howdy and Frndly TV services. Roku is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Encompass Digital Media

Encompass Digital Media is a global managed services company — technology-driven, software-defined, and people-powered. Trusted by world-leading broadcasters, networks, sports rights-holders, and OTT platforms, it processes over 25,000 hours of content daily, serves 850 channels to 84 countries, distributes over 243,000 live events annually, and reaches 400 million radio listeners weekly worldwide. Learn more at www.encompass.tv.

Media & Interview Requests: To interview creator Christin Jezak or the cast, contact Christin at cjezak@p2ptheatre.com.

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What Filmmakers Should Actually Steal From Euphoria

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Most of the talk about Euphoria asks one question: was it realistic? That’s the wrong question if you make films. The better one is simpler. How did Sam Levinson get an audience to feel addiction from the inside? And what did it cost him to end the show the way he did?

Strip away the noise and Euphoria is a clinic in three choices: point of view, style, and the ending. Here’s what’s worth taking — and what isn’t.

1. Put the Camera Inside the Character

Most shows about drugs watch from across the room. Euphoria doesn’t. When Rue is high, the camera is high too. Walls breathe. Floors tilt. Time skips. You’re not watching her — you’re stuck inside her head.

That’s the lesson: point of view is a decision you make with the camera and the cut, not a mood you add later in color. Levinson builds it into the lens, the blocking, and the edit.

So before you shoot a scene through a character’s eyes, ask one thing on set: whose eyes is this lens standing in for? Then make every cut respect that.

2. Your Style Has to Mean Something

The glitter. The slow push-ins. The impossible club lighting. Euphoria‘s look got copied everywhere. That’s the trap.

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The style worked because it carried weight. The beauty wasn’t decoration — it was the lie addiction tells you, the reason the next high looks worth it. The camera made self-destruction gorgeous on purpose.

The copies missed that. A thousand music videos took the look and left the meaning behind, and you can feel how hollow they are. So here’s the test: if your signature style could be swapped onto any other project and still “work,” it’s not a style. It’s a filter. Every choice should have a reason behind it.

3. The Ending Tells the Audience What It All Meant

When Euphoria ended for good in Season 3, Levinson killed Rue — an accidental, fentanyl-laced overdose. He called it “the honest ending,” saying he wanted to tell a true story about addiction and grief in a time when one mistake can be the last one. Reportedly, that wasn’t the original plan; the death of Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, changed the script.

Forget whether you agree with the choice. Study how it works. An ending is the last instruction you give your audience about how to read everything before it.

By ending on consequence instead of recovery, Levinson reframed seven years of beautiful chaos as a story about cost — not a celebration of it.

It’s also the show’s most debatable move, and that’s worth noticing too. A show that spent years making pain look beautiful had to fight to make that pain land as loss. Did it earn the ending, or enjoy the wreckage too long to stick it? Smart filmmakers will disagree — and that argument is exactly what a good ending is supposed to start.

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What Not to Take

The neon grief is the most copied part. It’s also the least useful. Take the surface — the colors, the slow-mo, the trauma-as-texture — and you get the costume without the body.

The real craft is underneath. Commit your camera to a real point of view. Make every stylistic choice earn its place. Treat your ending as the point of the whole thing. Do that, and your work won’t look like Euphoria. It’ll do what Euphoria did.


This piece touches on addiction and substance use. If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available through the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

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How a 22-Person Film Crew Each Walked Away With $300,000

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In the spring of 2020, with Hollywood shut down and most film workers suddenly out of a job, Zendaya made a movie in a single house with a crew of 22. The film was Malcolm & Marie. What happened to that crew afterward is the part worth paying attention to — and it’s quietly become a blueprint indie filmmakers are borrowing five years later.

Instead of paying everyone the standard flat day rate and sending them home, Zendaya structured the production so the crew owned a piece of it. They received “points” — a share of the film’s revenue.

When Malcolm & Marie sold to Netflix for roughly $30 million, those points turned into real money. Because one point typically equals 1%, a single point on that sale was worth around $300,000.

For a crew used to being paid by the day, that’s a life-changing number.

The Math That Makes It Click

The reason points are so powerful is that their value scales with the film, not with your hours on set:

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  • At $30 million in revenue, 1% equals $300,000
  • At $50 million, 1% equals $500,000
  • At $100 million, 1% equals $1 million

Now hold that against traditional indie crew pay, which runs roughly $300 to $800 per day. A 20-day shoot totals somewhere between $6,000 and $16,000 — full stop, no upside, no matter how well the film does. The points model flips the entire logic: you stop getting paid for time and start getting paid for success.

This Isn’t New — It’s Just Newly Accessible

Backend deals are how the biggest names in Hollywood get rich. Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned tens of millions from his Avengers: Endgame backend; Keanu Reeves made a fortune off The Matrix through profit participation. The leverage to demand that kind of deal has always belonged to A-list stars.

What changed with Malcolm & Marie is who got a seat at the table. Zendaya didn’t reserve the points for herself and a couple of producers — she extended them to the crew, the people she described as laying the tracks and doing the heavy lifting. That’s the shift indie filmmakers are now studying: ownership as something you share down the call sheet, not hoard at the top.

Why Indie Filmmakers Should Care

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Independent films usually run on budgets between $50,000 and $500,000, where labor can eat up 40% to 60% of total costs. That creates a permanent squeeze: how do you attract genuinely skilled people without torching the budget before you’ve shot a frame?

Equity is the pressure valve. Offering ownership instead of higher upfront pay lets you reduce immediate production costs, attract more experienced collaborators, and — maybe most importantly — build a team that actually wants the film to win.

How to Apply It to Your Own Project

You don’t need a $30 million Netflix sale for this to work. Say your budget is $250,000 and your revenue goal is $500,000, making 1% worth $5,000. Instead of stretching cash thin across every line item, you might offer 1% to a cinematographer, 1% to an editor, and 1–2% to a producer. You preserve cash during production and hand your key people a real reason to overdeliver.

Ownership Changes How People Show Up

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A stake rewires behavior. People who own a piece of the outcome stay sharper on set, pitch in on marketing and promotion without being asked, and stay invested long after wrap. That last part matters more than it sounds — a crew that’s financially tied to the film becomes part of its distribution engine, not just its production.

Read the Fine Print

Equity is not a salary, and it’s honest to say so. Malcolm & Marie worked because it sold to Netflix at a high price — that’s the upside scenario, not a guarantee. If a project underperforms, points can be worth little or nothing. So if you use this model, do it cleanly: define revenue participation explicitly in contracts, spell out recoupment structures so everyone knows who gets paid and in what order, and offer partial upfront payment where you can to balance the risk. The whole thing runs on trust, and trust runs on transparency.

The Bigger Picture

What Zendaya pulled off with a 22-person crew in one house pointed to something larger about how creative work gets valued. In an industry where funding is the hardest wall to climb, ownership has become its own currency. You may not control access to millions in financing — but you fully control how value gets shared on your set. And that, more often than not, is the difference between a film that stalls in development and one that actually gets made.

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