New figures reveal that The Dirt movie caused a massive explosion of interest in Motley Crue’s music catalog.
A statement reported that the band’s record sales had grown by 2,000 percent, while the soundtrack album reached No.1 on the iTunes All Genres Chart. It’s also at No. 4 in the U.S. and No.5 globally, with the band’s Greatest Hits compilation at No.2 domestically and No.11 worldwide.
Spotify streams were up from 400,000 per day to 3.6 million, and Deezer showed an increase of 669 percent. Meanwhile, the 2001 book on which The Dirt is based returned to the top of the music biography chart on Amazon.
The movie premiered on March 22 on Netflix. “Early returns show the movie at an 85 percent audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, on par with Bohemian Rhapsody’s 87 percent and ahead of Black Panther’s 79 percent,” the statement said.
“It is changing perceptions too, as women are enjoying The Dirt just as much, if not more than men, giving it a higher grade (7.4/10) than their male counterparts (7.1/10), according to an IMDB survey. The cautionary tale aims to deglamorize the sex, drugs, and rock n roll lifestyle led by the notorious rockers. It unflinchingly portrays domestic violence, drunk driving, and drug addiction to a mass audience.”Motley Crue regrouped last year to record four new songs for the soundtrack—the first to appear separately was “The Dirt (Est. 1981)”, followed by their cover of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”, and finally “Ride With the Devil” and “Crash and Burn.”
Director Jeff Tremaine recently told UCR that he’d been full of apprehension before showing Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee a cut of the movie for the first time. “I was just carefully watching them through each scene,” he said.
“They both got quieter and quieter, and by the end, I looked over, and Nikki had a big tear running down his eye. And I got a big hug from both of them. It was a great feeling and relief because it’s a big responsibility to tell somebody’s life story.”
He added he didn’t come into the project as a “super-fan, but I’m leaving it a super-fan of their music. As a filmmaker, I must hear those songs so often that I should be sick of them. But I’m not. I like them more than ever. Their music holds up.”
