MÖTLEY CRÜE Reflects On Record-Breaking 2019

As 2019 comes to a close, MÖTLEY CRÜE's hugely successful Netflix biopic "The Dirt" remains one of the highest-rated music films as voted by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes, the online review aggregation service that allows both critics and the public to rate movies. As of December 17, "The Dirt" remains at 95%, down 1% from June 2019 high of 96%, making it one of the highest, if not highest, audience-rated music films of 2019 — voted higher than 2019 releases "Rocketman" (88%, Elton John compositions),"Judy" (85%),"Yesterday" (89%, THE BEATLES compositions),"Blinded By The Light" (91%, Bruce Springsteen compositions) and 2018's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (85%, QUEEN compositions).

In terms of its non-music peers, it's the same ol' situation. "The Dirt"'s 95% audience rating measures up powerfully against some of the year's biggest movie releases, regardless of being movie theater or SVOD release. As of December 17, "The Dirt" is ahead of "The Irishman" 86% audience rating, "Toy Story 4" (94%),"Joker" (88%),"Avengers Endgame" (90%) and "Two Popes" (79%).

While CRÜE fans seemingly loved "The Dirt", movie critics were less impressed. The film currently has a 39% critic score from 70 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, including one from Indiewire, which called the film "wonderfully bad," saying that it "feels like it could have been made about any one of a zillion other bands." The Los Angeles Times called "The Dirt" "astoundingly tone deaf" and "as vapid and misogynistic as the band members and the book they wrote with author Neil Strauss."

The Daily Beast said that the film "spends almost two hours glamorizing shitty behavior, and then attempts to exonerate its stars with a few vague voiceovers about regret and rehabilitation." Other outlets that weighed in with negative reviews included The New York Times, The Atlantic and Deadline.

Some critics were kinder, describing "The Dirt" as a "guilty pleasure" and giving the actors who played the band credit for "working together to create such a chummy group that their power as an ensemble elevates the material. Just like their real-life counterparts."

Depite the film's critical panning, "The Dirt" debuted via Netflix ahead of "Black Panther"'s 79% Rotten Tomatoes audience rating and the global reaction to the band's antics prompted the band to immediately become one of the top-searched topics on Google Trends with a 3900% spike in searches. "The Dirt" soundtrack debuted at #1 in the iTunes album chart and Top 10 worldwide with 22 chart-topping singles and 7 albums, including "Dr. Feelgood", re-entering the charts.

Demand from the new fans to see the band perform live resulted in the iconic U.S. rockers announcing 2020 live comeback tour with a 27-date U.S. "The Stadium Tour", featuring DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS. With already over 700,000 tickets sold and gross box office receipts of over $90 million in the first weekend of sales, "The Stadium Tour" will be the biggest rock tour of 2020. The bands responded to the unprecedented fan demand by announcing seven additional shows in new cities. The tour will kick off on June 21, 2020 in San Antonio, Texas and end September 5, 2020 in Los Angeles.

MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx said: "Little did we know that making 'The Dirt' movie would lead us to this exciting new place touring stadiums with our friends in DEF LEPPARD. We are beyond excited for this tour to begin”.

Chris Nilsson, president of 10th Street Management, said of the record-breaking tour: "The value of this tour package has created huge consumer demand. Thinking outside of what is traditional in music, books, film and documentaries has kept MÖTLEY CRÜE in the nation's consciousness for decades and now will keep them there for many decades more."

This return to touring comes almost six years after the band signed an unprecedented cessation of touring agreement to never perform together again — a contract that was quite literally blown up, much to the delight of their extensive global fanbase, creating a global water cooler moment in November.

This week, MÖTLEY CRÜE also released a new music video for their iconic track "Looks That Kill", featuring the actors from "The Dirt" juxtaposed against the original performance of MÖTLEY CRÜE. The video features Colson Baker a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly, as Tommy Lee, Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx, Daniel Webber as Vince Neil and Iwan Rheon as Mick Mars.