Ben Stiller has not only had successes, the proof with “Zoolaner 2”, a critical and box office failure. This experience marked the actor and director who had to question himself after that.
Ben Stiller looks back on the failure of Zoolander 2
Ben Stiller has several cult comedies to his credit, such as Mary at all cost (1998) or My stepfather and I (2000). But also Dodgeball! Not even hurt ! (2004) or the trilogy Night at the Museum (2006, 2009, 2014), without forgetting Zoolander (2002), which he also directed. A totally absurd film in which Ben Stiller plays Derek Zoolander, a successful model who loses everything overnight. What follows is a whole bunch of improbable and burlesque situations which will lead the hero to have to thwart an assassination attempt.
With its 60 million dollars pocketed, for a budget of 28 million dollars, Zoolander was a good success for Ben Stiller. Only, almost 15 years later, his attempt to bring Derek Zoolander back to the forefront with a sequel was a failure. Produced with a much larger budget, estimated at $50 million, Zoolander 2 only grossed $56 million worldwide.
But above all, if the first opus was rather well received by the press and the public, Zoolander 2 for its part had catastrophic returns. On Rotten Tomatoes, the feature film only has 20% positive reviews among journalists and spectators alike. What Ben Stiller went through badly, as he revealed in David Duchovny’s podcast, Fail Better (via Variety).
“I didn’t know it was that bad.”
During his speech, Ben Stiller explained that he really thought that Zoolander 2 was what the public expected. But he received a real slap in the face when he saw the first figures at the box office and press feedbackwhich made him question himself.
I thought, “Wow, I must have really screwed this up.” The public was not there. And the reviews were horrible.
Ben Stiller also shared his concerns and his questions with his fear of no longer knowing how to make people laugh.
It really scared me because I didn’t know it was that bad. And what scared me the most about this experience was that I felt like I no longer knew what was funny.
The actor was “caught off guard“by this unexpected failure for him, but who had it”affected for a long time“. Which does not prevent him from take the positive since, according to him, in the event of success of Zoolander 2, the producers would certainly have pushed for him to do a third and he would have jumped at the chance. But instead, Ben Stiller was able to take the time to focus on other projects, comedy and otherwise. For example, he bounced back very well in the series with Escape at Dannemora (2018) and Severance (2022) as producer and director. Moreover, for the latter, filming for season 2 has just ended.
