Trivia / Zoolander 2

• Box Office Bomb: On a $50 million budget, it made near exactly half and half domestically and overseas, earning $28.8 million domestic and $27.9 million overseas for a total of $56.7 million, barely outgrossing the original's domestic returns. This can be attributed to poor reviews, but also having the unfortunate exact same release date as Deadpool. While the Merc with a Mouth was expected to beat him the whole time, almost nobody expected just how much he would explode on the scene, with Zoolander 2 finishing a distant number 4 and effectively disintegrated in the following weeks.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Benedict Cumberbatch said in a January 2022 Variety Actors on Actors with co-star Penélope Cruz that had the film been made today, he wouldn't have played All, believing that the role should be played by a trans actor or a non-binary actor instead.
  • Ben Stiller said in a February 2022 interview with Esquire that he was glad the film flopped by saying that had the film performed well at the box office, then he wouldn't have been able to pursue doing more serious, non-comedic work such as the critically acclaimed Escape at Dannemora and Severance (2022).
• Dueling Movies: As mentioned above, the film would release competing against fellow comedy Deadpool... and got absolutely curb-stomped in the ensuing battle.
• The Other Darrin: In the Latin American Spanish dub:
  • Ben Stiller's usual voice actor, Ricardo Tejedo, replaced Gabriel Gama as Derek Zoolander.
  • Sergio Gutiérrez Coto, Owen Wilson's recurring voice actor, replaced Raúl Anaya as Hansel McDonald. Oddly enough, Anaya himself would replace Israel Magaña as Jacobim Mugatu, since Magaña moved to Cuernavaca in 2009.
  • Herman López replaced César Izaguirre as Maury Ballstein, as Izaguirre died of a heart attack in 2015.
  • Laura Torres replaced Gabriela Gómez as Katinka Ingabogovinanana due to Gómez retiring from acting in 2013. Gómez has since resumed her acting career.
• Role Reprise: Returning from the first film are Ben Stiller as Derek Zoolander, Owen Wilson as Hansel McDonald, Christine Taylor as Matilda Jeffries, Jerry Stiller as Maury Ballstein, Will Ferrell as Jacobim Mugatu, and Milla Jovovich as Katinka Ingabogovinanana.
• Sequel Gap: Released fifteen years after the first.
• Star-Derailing Role: This film's failure did varying levels of damage to its actors' star power in 2016, with only Owen Wilson emerging relatively unscathed.
  • Its failure harmed the career of Ben Stiller, though moreso as a movie star than his overall career in Hollywood. Although Stiller had success in the late '90s and early '00s, most of his movies in the early '10s, like The Watch (2012) and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, either flopped or underperformed. Looking at the box office receipts for most of his work till then, it isn't hard to infer Zoolander 2 was probably his attempt to Win Back the Crowd. Once it bombed critically and financially, he has hardly acted on film besides independent ones such as Brad's Status and The Meyerowitz Stories. On television, he guest starred on Saturday Night Live and later reprised his role as Tony Wonder on Arrested Development. However, he has had success as a director and a producer with the critically acclaimed Escape at Dannemora and Severance (2022).
  • At the start of the decade, Kristen Wiig was basking in the exposure after her tenure on Saturday Night Live along with her well-received work writing and starring in Bridesmaids. However, she began appearing in a number of increasingly underperforming movies (including Walter Mitty opposite Stiller) that steadily whittled down the hype she had. When this film, along with Ghostbusters (2016) and Masterminds (2016), flopped, Wiig was deemed box office poison. She would win a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in Zoolander 2. Most of her films afterwards (mother!, Downsizing, etc.) also failed to turn a profit, while her next huge role as the Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984 was one of that film's most divisive elements and garnered her yet another Razzie nomination.
  • Penélope Cruz was in the midst of a slump after winning an Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which reached its nadir when this film tanked badly. Luckily, she soon recovered with roles on television (as Donatella Versace in The Assassination of Gianni Versace) and on film (reuniting with director Pedro Almodóvar in Pain and Glory and Parallel Mothers).
  • Will Ferrell saw his career start sliding down when this film tanked, with Holmes & Watson two years later providing a super effective double tap. His film career since has mostly consisted of cameos and supporting roles at best. He did return to leading roles again starting with the 2020 comedies Downhill and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and continuing with the 2023 black comedy film Strays (2023), all of which got mixed reviews from viewers. He has, however, reclaimed a good amount of star power thanks to his supporting role as the Mattel CEO in Greta Gerwig's Barbie, which was critically acclaimed and grossed $1.4 billion.
• Trans Character, Cis Actor: Cis actor Benedict Cumberbatch plays the trans character All.
• You Sound Familiar: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Jacobim Mugatu is voiced by Raúl Anaya, who voiced Hansel McDonald in the first film.

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