| Material Girls | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Martha Coolidge |
| Produced by | Milton Kim Tim Wesley Mark Morgan Guy Oseary Hilary Duff Haylie Duff[1] Susan Duff Eva LaRue David Faigenblum |
| Written by | John Quaintance Jessica O'Toole Amy Rardin |
| Starring | Hilary Duff Haylie Duff Anjelica Huston Lukas Haas |
| Music by | Jennie Muskett |
| Cinematography | Johnny E. Jensen |
| Editing by | Steven Cohen |
| Studio | Maverick Films Patriot Pictures |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | August 18, 2006 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Box office | $16,907,725 |
Material Girls is a 2006 American satirical teen comedy film starring Hilary and Haylie Duff. It is based on a script written by John Quaintance and is directed by Martha Coolidge. It also stars Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, and Brent Spiner. It is co-produced by Patriot Pictures and Maverick Films.
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The plot centers around the Marchetta sisters, Tanzie (Hilary Duff) and Ava (Haylie Duff), rich, spoiled Hollywood socialites who enjoy material things such as shopping and dating, rather than caring about their late father's cosmetics company. When a major media scandal involving one of the company's products turns into an investigation, the girls find their assets frozen and must adjust to life without their fortune. Just when it seems like things could not get any worse, disaster strikes again.
When a fire starts in their home, Ava quickly takes all her clothes while Tanzie, caring about her father more, takes her his TiVo and some clothes. They are tempted to listen to their advisors and sell the company to their biggest competitor, Fabiella (Anjelica Huston), for just - "only" as they say - over $60 million each. Though this means that they could return to the lifestyle they were accustomed to, they decide to honor their father's memory by trying to turn it around themselves. Finding inspiration in Erin Brockovich, the girls decide to get to the root of the scandal. They use their good looks and charming personalities to win the case and prove their father's innocence.
In the end, the girls successfully manage to clear the Marchetta name and reclaim the company. Nearly six months after the scandal began, the girls are seen leading the company, with Ava as the CEO and Tanzie working as a lab technician, with them both finding boyfriends.
The film began production on April 18, 2005, in Los Angeles, California. For the film's soundtrack, Hilary Duff recorded two new songs: "Happy" (which features the same music as "Play with Fire", her single released in August 2006) and a Dead Executives-produced cover version of Madonna's song "Material Girl"[2] (originally to be produced by Timbaland),[3] which was the inspiration for the film's story and is featured at the beginning of the film.
On March 31, 2006, the entertainment site AndPop.com reported that Lukas Haas had said he did not expect the film to be released. These statements were confirmed on April 5, in an article in The Ryersonian. Haas expressed his unhappiness with the film, and said they had been trying to sell the film for a long time with little success.[4] On April 6, the website Box Office Mojo reported that MGM had picked up the rights to Material Girls and would be releasing it on August 25 (this was later changed to August 18). On May 2, the official website for Martha Coolidge reported that it would be released on around 2,000 screens.[5]
Material Girls was released in 1,500 theaters in the U.S. and debuted at #9 on the weekend box office chart, grossing only US$4.62 million dollars in its first three days of release.[6] The DVD for Material Girls was released on December 12, 2006 in the U.S by 20th Century Fox under the MGM Home Entertainment label. It is a double-sided DVD with special features including the music video for Hilary Duff's single "Play with Fire". In the UK the film was released on March 2, 2007 to coincide with the release of Duff's single "With Love", her album Dignity, and the UK release of her scent With Love... Hilary Duff. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. The film has garnered a total of $16,847,695 worldwide.[7]
The film received extremely negative reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking Material Girls 46th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 4%,[8] and 17% by Metacritic.[9] It earned Hilary and Haylie Duff received Razzie Award nominations for both Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple.
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