Ben Stiller: Watching ‘Zoolander 2’ Flop Around the World Was ‘Not a Great Experience’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf With a reported budget of $50 million and a U.S. box office gross of only $29 million, “Zoolander 2” is one of the biggest flops of Ben Stiller’s career.

The writer-director-actor recently told Esquire magazine that watching his star-studded “Zoolander” sequel fail at the box office around the world was “not a great experience.” Stiller produced, starred in, directed and co-wrote the flop.

However, he said he has a glass-half-full mentality when it comes to reflecting on the misstep.“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 said, referring to his acclaimed Showtime limited series “Escape From Dannemora.” The prison escape drama is how Stiller rebounded from the “Zoolander 2” catastrophe.