Taglines: Kiss The Rules Goodbye.
Detroit Rock City movie storyline. In Cleveland, Ohio, in 1978, four rebellious teenage boys – Hawk, Lex, Trip Verduie, and Jeremiah “Jam” Bruce – run their own Kiss cover band called “Mystery” while they prepare to see their idols in concert in Detroit, Michigan, the following night. Their hopes, however, are dashed when Jam’s religious mother discovers the concert tickets and burns them before having Jam transferred to a Catholic boarding school.
Trip manages to win tickets and backstage passes from a radio contest in Detroit and the boys plan to rescue Jam from the boarding school. Disguised as pizza delivery boys, they get Father Phillip McNulty drugged from a pizza topped with hallucinogen mushrooms and set off with Jam for Detroit in Lex’s mother’s Volvo to pick up the tickets. While on the highway, the boys get into a road rage incident with disco fanatics Kenny and Bobby after Trip accidentally throws a slice of pizza on their windshield. They beat up the disco duo and continue their journey before picking up Christine, who walked out on Kenny due to his behavior.
Upon their arrival in Detroit, the boys discover that Trip did not stay on the phone long enough to give the radio station his information, forcing them to give the tickets to the next caller. After discovering that the Volvo has been stolen, the boys split up to find Kiss tickets and meet up in an hour and 45 minutes. Hawk finds a scalper who suggests he enter a male stripping contest to raise money for tickets. He gets drunk and loses the contest, but is offered payment for company by an older woman named Amanda Finch.
After being paid, he locates the scalper, only to find out that his tickets are sold out. Trip goes to a local convenience store in hopes of mugging a younger child for his ticket, but is confronted by the boy’s elder brother Chongo and his friends, who threaten him for $200. He then plans to rob the store with a fake gun, but ends up thwarting a real robbery attempt and is rewarded $150. Trip gives the money to Chongo’s gang, but they steal his wallet in the process.
Detroit Rock City is a 1999 American comedy film directed by Adam Rifkin and written by Carl V. Dupré. It tells of four teenage boys in a Kiss cover band who try to see their idols in concert in Detroit in 1978. Comparable to Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Dazed and Confused, The Stöned Age, and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, it tells a coming-of-age story through a filter of 1970s music and culture in the United States. It ultimately took its title from the Kiss song of the same name.
The film was shot at Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Toronto and other Ontario locations including Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. The film opened in 1,802 theaters on August 13, 1999 and earned $2,005,512 in its opening weekend, ranking number 13 in the domestic box office. By the end of its run, it had grossed only $4,217,115. Against an estimated $34 million budget, it was a box office bomb.
Detroit Rock City (1999)
Directed by: Adam Rifkin
Starring: Edward Furlong, Giuseppe Andrews, James DeBello, Sam Huntington, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Natasha Lyonne, Lin Shaye
Screenplay by: Carl V. Dupré
Production Design by: Steve Hardie
Cinematography by: John R. Leonetti
Film Editing by: Mark Goldblatt, Peter Schink
Costume Design by: Rosanna Norton
Set Decoration by: Carolyn ‘Cal’ Loucks
Art Direction by: Lucinda Zak
Music by: J. Peter Robinson
MPAA Rating: R for strong language, drug use and sex-related content.
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Release Date: August 13, 1999
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