Material Girls

For the Madonna song, see Material Girl. For other uses, see Material girl (disambiguation).

Material Girls
Theatrical release poster
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^{[citation needed]} It also stars Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, and Brent Spiner. It is co-produced by Patriot Pictures and Maverick Films.

Plot

The plot centers around the Marchetta sisters, Tanzie (Hilary Duff) and Ava (Haylie Duff), a pair of 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 dad's 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. While this means that they could return to the lifestyle that they were accustomed to, nonetheless 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. The girls 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.

Cast

• Hilary Duff as Tanzania "Tanzie" Marchetta
• Haylie Duff as Ava Marchetta
• Anjelica Huston as Fabiella
• Brent Spiner as Tommy
• Lukas Haas as Henry
• Faith Prince as Pam
• Marcus Coloma as Rick
• Obba Babatundé as Craig
• Maria Conchita Alonso as Inez
• Reagan Dale Neis as Jaden
• Ty Hodges as Etienne
• Colleen Camp as Charlene
• Philip Casnoff as Victor Marchetta
• Tanya Alexander as LaPorscha
• Dot Marie Jones as Butch Brenda
• Cheyenne Haynes and Andrea Ramirez as Inez's daughters
• Brandon Beemer as Mac Rionn
• Joel and Benji Madden as Mistaken Valets
• Joanne Baron as Gretchen

Production

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]

Release

Box office

Material Girls was released in 1,500 theaters in the U.S. and debuted at #9 on the weekend box office chart, grossing only $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]

Reception

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.

Notes

1. ^ "Material Girls Official website". December 30, 2007. http://www.materialgirls-themovie.com/credits.html. 
2. ^ http://hilaryduffnewsandpictures.blogspot.com/2006_07_16_archive.html
3. ^ CANOE - JAM! Music - Artists - Duff, Hilary: Exclusive interview with Hilary Duff
4. ^ http://stw.ryerson.ca/~sonian/apr5/arts/haas.html
5. ^ MarthaCoolidge.com
6. ^ Box Office Prophets: Box Office Estimates Report for August 18-20, 2006
7. ^ Box Office Mojo. "Material Girls". http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=materialgirls.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-02. 
8. ^ Material Girls Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
9. ^ Material Girls (2006): Reviews

External links

• Official website
• Material Girls at the Internet Movie Database
• Material Girls at Box Office Mojo
• Material Girls at Rotten Tomatoes
• Material Girls at Metacritic
• Official trailer