The long-waited Motley Crue biopic The Dirt was only released a week ago – but its impact is already being felt across the music world.
There’s been a spike of activity in sales and streams of the Crue’s material, with a reported 570% stream increase on Spotify, a 900% stream increase on Apple Music and 669% on Deezer, while downloads on iTunes have grown by a whopping 2027%.
In addition, the 2001 book the film is based on, The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, has also been selling well on Amazon.
The Dirt is currently enjoying an 85% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from fans, although critics have been more harsh, with the film sitting at 42% from their perspective – a subject touched on by bassist Nikki Sixx earlier this week (opens in new tab).
The band’s manager Allen Kovac, who also served as a producer on The Dirt, says: “Our strategy was to use both the film and music algorithmic echo chamber to have a virtuous circle – each propelling the other to greater heights.
“The audiences have voted on the music streaming platforms and on social media, critics are a thing of the past as Bohemian Rhapsody (opens in new tab) has shown.”
As for the film, which stars Douglas Booth, Daniel Webber, Iwan Rheon and Machine Gun Kelly, Sixx says: “We show painful examples of domestic violence, DUI, manslaughter, drug overdose and the loss of a child.
“We couldn’t possibly have crammed everything from a 430-page book into an hour and 50-minute movie, but we felt we achieved our objective of showing the downside of sex drugs and rock and roll.”
Check out Classic Rock's review of The Dirt (opens in new tab).
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