Jessica Simpson's Blonde Ambition Could Set Record

• Dec 23, 2007 11:19 PM ET
• by Ken Fox

It seems Jessica Simpson's new movie, Blonde Ambition, may have set some sort of record. With an opening day gross of $384, it may be one of the lowest grossing theatrical films ever. In what sounds like a shamelessly uncredited remake of Mike Nichols' Academy Award-winning comedy Working Girl, Simpson stars as a sweet, small-town gal from Oklahoma who climbs the corporate ladder at a construction firm in big, bad New York City. My guess is that a credited Luke Wilson stars as the Harrison Ford character. Now in all fairness, Blonde Ambition, which was produced by father Joe Simpson's ickily named Papa Joe Productions, was only released into eight theaters, all in Simpson's and Wilson's home state of Texas. To put this in perspective, I Am Legend opened across the country on over 3600 screens, and Blonde Ambition, which is scheduled to come out on DVD on January 22 anyway, arrived with none of the ad muscle accompanying its holiday season competition, like this week's box-office champ, National Treasure: Book of Secrets ($45.5 million so far). But when you break it down, it turns out only 48 people paid to see Blonde Ambition on its opening day, which means only six people per theater. (Although according to a posting on Cinematical.com, three of those screens were in Cinemark Discount Theaters, which offered $2 tickets after 6 pm, so that number could be marginally higher.) Doesn't someone like Jessica Simpson have more than 48 friends? What about that big Texas family of hers? And I understand Owen Wilson maybe too fragile to sit through a Jessica Simpson comedy without at least one drink beforehand, but what about the rest of the Wilson clan? And doesn't co-star Andy Dick have fans? Just how bad is this thing anyway?

PS: It should be noted that thanks to a DVD screener leak, Blonde Ambition has been available online for weeks, and so far over 6000 fans - or people who just like getting something for nothing - have downloaded it. So has Blonde Ambition fallen victim to digital piracy, or the unbreakable curse of Jessica Simpson?