Ben Stiller decides to look on the bright side of Zoolander 2 being a box office flop
To think, we could have had Zoolander 3 instead of Escape At Dannemora or Severance
Aux News Ben Stiller
When it comes to Zoolander 2's reception and abysmal ticket sales, Ben Stiller still describes it as “not a great experience.” However, in a new interview with Esquire, the star now seems at peace with the film flopping spectacularly at the box office, as it opened more gratifying doors.
“If Zoolander 2 had been a huge hit, and then people were saying ‘Zoolander 3! Do this movie! That movie!’—that might have taken me off the road of having the space to work on developing Dannemora,” Stiller says, referring to his Showtime series Escape At Dannemora.
Despite a successful prerequisite film, and a cast that included Stiller, Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, Kirsten Wiig, and Will Ferrell, 2016's Zoolander 2 only earned $29 million in the States (after a $56 million budget) and was lambasted by critics.
Stiller also says that with the failure of Zoolander 2, he ended the directorial tradition of stepping on a glass bottle for good luck because, before filming commenced, a shard of glass went through the sole of his shoe and into his foot. However, the writer, producer, director and actor has since decided to cherish that sharp, shattered glass.
“I might have gotten distracted by other bright shiny objects, but instead it opened a path where I could just do what I’d honestly wanted to do for years and years, which was: just direct something!” Stiller explains. “To say, I’m just going to work on this project that I want to work on, because it takes a little time to get these things going, and if you don’t stick with it you don’t get there.”
Two years after the release of Zoolander No. 2, Escape At Dannemora would air, earning twelve Emmy nominations, including one for Outstanding Limited Series. The series, which stars Benicio del Toro, Patricia Arquette, and Paul Dano, follows one federal prison employee as she helps two inmates she’s become romantically involved with escape.
Right now, Apple TV+ is airing Stiller’s latest series, the workplace drama Severance starring Adam Scott. It’s his first project since 2018's Dannemora, and has received buzzed as one of the first must-see shows of the year.
“People do ask me, ‘Why were you drawn to this? You’re not a guy who does these kinds of things,’” Stiller says about people’s reactions to his dramatic productions. “I get asked that about Severance, I heard it a lot about Dannemora. ‘You’re funny. Be funny.’ I get it. But I don’t analyze it. In my mind, it made total sense.”
39 Comments
cool
I’m still waiting for The Cable Guy 2, you coward.
The Cable Guy held up pretty well, and I think its significantly better than how the critics described it at the time.
This post was originally a joke about making an Ace Ventura 3, but upon researching the topic I’ve found that there both already exists an Ace Ventura 3, and apparently also will be an Ace Ventura 3 in the near future. I can only hope that this quantum AV3 superposition is merely a marker for the end of the Universe as we know it.
Seriously, I would love to catch up with Chip/Ernie/Larry/Ricky in the era of people cutting the cord en masse.
I hate to break it to you…
I think we have now established that he does in fact do these kinds of things. There’s always an interesting energy when “comedy” people do more dramatic genres, a sense of the absurd, and a theatricality remains. Mark Gatiss in Sherlock, or his horror/thriller work for the BBC. Black Mirror. Robin Williams in Two Hour Photo. Most of Jordan Peele’s film work. Severance, which I’m loving, is funny in places, and doesn’t try too hard to avoid a sense of the ridiculous. You can take it as a dark comedy, or an absurd drama, it works on both levels.
Did you find the shower scene at the end of episode 2 in Severance pretty fucking awesome? I’m hooked and need to know where it’s going.
Yes. Yes I did! Roll on Friday!
Robin Williams in World’s Greatest Dad.
Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, too! Just top to bottom comedy, that movie.
Calling “Severance” a “workplace drama” is a bit reductive, no? Kinda misses the point.
Kinda misses the point- The AV Club
Zoolander 2 is a sequel that’s so bad in every way that it retroactively made me rethink if the first one was ever good in the first place. It’s like its badness rippled through time, destroying once beloved things. Luckily, I did watch Zoolander again recently and it does hold up. And now I forget that Zoolander 2 even happened until articles like this pop up again.
I’ve gone the route of never seeing Zoolander 2. That way it doesn’t exist to me! I won’t allow another Anchorman 2 to happen to me.
same and for the same reason. Anchorman 2 makes Step Brothers look like Anchorman 1
The first one had Bowie. Other than that, yeah, fuck it.
Yep, the problem with Zoolander 2 is that it was completely unnecessary. The first one ended perfectly and no one needed a sequel. Z2 was good enough for what it was but nobody asked for it. On the flip side of Ben Stiller movies, I would absolutely love a sequel to Zero Effect.
Upvoted for Zero Effect.
There’s always The Sinner. Lone Star as a basic cable detective with issues.
It’s not really a Ben Stiller movie, is it? And you could say that Jake Kasdan did make a sequel with the Zero Effect pilot (which I haven’t seen but is on Youtube)I can’t imagine a harder sell, these days, than a Zero Effect sequel, anyways. Outside of the Jumanji movies, Jake Kasdan doesn’t have a stellar box office record and Zero Effect ended up either influencing or, at least, being a precursor to a whole slew of Sherlock Holmes reimaginings that had their day in the sun. Why would anyone need a new Zero Effect when you already have 8 seasons of House?
Didn’t sort of an unofficial sequel exist in the form of the series Monk? I mean, they probably didn’t come up with the central gimmick completely independently.
No, the problem with Zoolander 2 was that it was horribly unfunny and just plain terrible.Is a sequel to the original Zoolander NECESSARY? No, obviously not. But does that mean one couldn’t be funny and witty if done well? No. The problem was it was just bad.
I mean, very few sequels are really necessary. Many movies aren’t necessary. But I don’t think it would’ve impossible for a good follow up to Zoolander to be made. For many movies it’s not about the premise, it’s about the execution.
Yep. Same deal with Anchorman…totally unnecessary sequel, which was mostly really fucking bad.
Nearly all comedy sequels are really fucking bad. I can’t think of a good one!I think it’s because most popular comedies are really coming-of-age stories, where the protagonist (despite being in middle age) goes from being a functional child to acting more like an adult.But once that transformation occurs in the first movie, there’s nowhere left to go with the character. So the sequel has to walk back that change, and then repeat the plot of the first movie, just bigger and with callbacks to the original’s jokes.
Wayne’s World 2 was pretty good.Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was probably even better than the original.But in both these cases they avoided doing the standard “Let’s make a movie hitting all the same points as the original” but went in a different direction.
Really enjoyed 22 Jump Street. Thought it was as good as the original.Jenko: We’re like a power couple.
Schmidt: We’re like Rihanna and Chris Brown. Your a good dancer but sometimes your meaner than like you to be sometimes
Yeah, that one was definitely good, a rare exception. They were smart to make the sequel so soon after the first one; the really, really belated comedy sequels like Anchorman 2 (nine years after the original), Zoolander 2 (15 years), and Dumb and Dumber To (20 years later!) always seem to turn out shitty. They struck while the iron was hot with 22 Jump Street, and yeah, I find that one and the first movie to be equally funny.
I think the fact that Zoolander 1 had David Bowie in it and Zoolander 2 did not already put the second film at a huge disadvantage right off the bat.
I didn’t know there was a zoolander 2. So I just read the linked article on it. I may have seen the movie and totally forgot, because a lot of the description sounds familiar. But I cant even pull up one mental image of it.
He looks like he’s wearing a Ben Stiller mask.
Somebody killed Ben Stiller and stole his face?!
Amateur! Should have worn it inside out, so they wouldn’t recognize him!
Oh, Zoolander…we need a moment to mourn Z3…who fancies a drink?(And yes, that is a very young and exceedingly and ridiculously very pretty Alexander Skarsgard..)
There was a Zoolander 2?I’m not being snarky. I seriously have no memory of this existing. No memory of any trailers or hype or ads or anything.
it probably would have been a hit if it had come out 10 years earlier (5 years after the first), but by 2016 noone gave a shit and it didn’t help that the movie stunk.
He directed Reality Bites. It’s not that he’s new to directing dramas.
I thoroughly enjoyed Zoolander 2. I will take your slings and arrows