Summary

• Ben Stiller recalls questioning his comedic sensibilities after the failure of Zoolander 2.
• The sequel to his 2001 comedy was lambasted by critics and earned only $56.7 million at the box office, making it a major disappointment.
• Zoolander 2 failed due to a weak script and a reliance on celebrity cameos over the funny jokes and satire that made the first movie such a success.

Zoolander 2 director and star Ben Stiller candidly reflects on the negative reception to his 2016 sequel. After the success of the first film in 2001, which he also directed, Stiller returned as fashion model Derek Zoolander for an Italy-set follow-up. The movie was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews and was a box office flop, earning only $56.7 million on an estimated production budget of $50 million.

In a recent interview with People, Stiller recalls the profound impact that Zoolander 2's failure had on him at the time. According the actor, the film's negative reception left him with a lot of self-doubt, but there was ultimately a silver lining to the experience. Check out his comments below:

"I thought everybody wanted this. And then it's like, 'Wow, I must have really f---ed this up. Everybody didn't go to it. And it's gotten these horrible reviews. It really freaked me out because I was like, 'I didn't know was that bad?'

"What scared me the most on that one was l'm losing what I think what's funny, the questioning yourself ... on Zoolander 2, it was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time.

"The wonderful thing that came out of that for me was just having space where, if that had been a hit, and they said 'Make Zoolander 3 right now,' or offered some other movie, I would have just probably jumped in and done that. But I had this space to kind of sit with myself and have to deal with it and other projects that I had been working on – not comedies, some of them – I have the time to actually just work on and develop.

"Even if somebody said, 'Well, why don't you go do another comedy or do this?' I probably could have figured out something to do. But I just didn't want to.”

In addition to being an actor, Stiller is also a director and producer. His next project as director and executive producer is Severance season 2.

Zoolander 2's Failure Explained

Why Did Ben Stiller's Sequel Not Meet Expectations?

The early 2000s saw the release of a handful of comedies that could now be considered true classics of the genre, and the first Zoolander is certainly among them. The film currently enjoys a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience score at an impressive 80%. Part of the joy of the original was just how silly it was, with dumb and unaware characters delivering what ultimately amounts to a hilarious satire of high fashion and the world of runway models. In addition to Stiller, Zoolander benefits from the comedic talent or actors like Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell.

Although Stiller, Wilson, and Ferrell all reprise their roles for Zoolander 2, the sequel just wasn't able to deliver the laughs of the first movie. The characters remained as clueless as ever, but the writing wasn't as smart, and the film is bogged down by celebrity cameos and a story that tries to emulate what made the first movie so beloved without any real innovation. As a result, Zoolander 2 earned only 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience score even lower at 20%.

Part of the problem could be that recapturing the magic of the original movie 15 years later was always going to be a tall order, something that other comedy sequels have also struggled with. Other sequels to beloved comedies that fell short include movies like Caddyshack 2, Dumb and Dumber To, and Son of the Mask. While Zoolander 2's failure was evidently a blow to Stiller, it's clear that he was able to make the most of if by working on other projects that may have otherwise been pushed to the wayside.

Source: People