Produced by New Line Cinema and Corner Stone Entertainment in association with Offspring Entertainment and Material Pictures, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film stars Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta (in his theatrical film debut), leading an ensemble cast that includes Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Åkerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston and Tom Cruise.

Shankman was confirmed as director in October, with D'Arienzo announced to be adapting his book into the screenplay, later joined by Loeb and Theroux.

Principal photography took place between May and August of that year, with locations including Miami, Hollywood, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as Los Angeles.

On the night of Arsenal's final show, Dennis learns the opening act has cancelled; Sherrie convinces him to use Drew's band, Wolfgang Von Colt ("More Than Words/Heaven").

Drew mistakenly believes that Sherrie and Stacee had sex and is angrily inspired to sing ("I Wanna Rock") for the opening act.

Paul, impressed with his performance, offers Drew a record deal as Arsenal sings their last song of the night ("Pour Some Sugar on Me").

Stacee realizes his feelings for Constance ("Rock You Like a Hurricane") and calls Rolling Stone to learn that she is covering his show at The Bourbon Room.

Stacee rushes to the venue, where Lonny leads the patrons against Patricia's protest group ("We're Not Gonna Take It/We Built This City").

Sherrie reunites Wolfgang Von Colt onstage, where she and Drew perform the song he wrote for her ("Don't Stop Believin'").

Eight months later, Stacee has rejoined Arsenal and performs the song with Drew and Sherrie, now part of Wolfgang Von Colt, at Dodger Stadium in front of a crowd including Dennis, Lonny, Justice, a pregnant Constance, and Patricia, who has returned to her rock 'n' roll persona.

Constantine Maroulis, who played Drew in the original Broadway cast, appears as the Capitol Records executive during "Any Way You Want It".

Several 1980s musicians also made cameo appearances throughout the film, including Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, Debbie Gibson, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, Joel Hoekstra of Night Ranger/Whitesnake and Porcelain Black, during "We Built This City/We're Not Gonna Take It".

[4][5] Chris D'Arienzo, creator of the stage musical, revealed he was originally attached to write and direct the film, wishing to have it visualised as similar to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) musicals such as Singin' in the Rain, however the studio elected to hire someone they felt they could trust with the budget they wanted to give the film, resulting in Shankman's hiring.

"It's this brilliant mashup, it seems, of Axl Rose, Bret Michaels, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison," Shankman said of what to expect from Cruise.

[18] Pretty Little Liars star Diego Boneta was confirmed to play the male protagonist, Drew Boley, on April 5, 2011.

The unnamed character is described as "the Villainess of the movie" who "wants to shut down rock'n roll in the great city of Los Angeles.

[28] The scenes at the iconic Hollywood Sign were filmed at the Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park in Pompano Beach.

[29] On July 18, filming took place at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, for a concert scene with "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Wanted Dead or Alive".

[34] On its opening weekend in theaters, the film grossed $14,447,269, ranking third place, behind the previous week's holdovers Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus.

[35] Rock of Ages was a box office bomb, grossing $38,518,613 in North America and $20,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $59,418,613, failing to bring back its $75 million budget.

Then there was the other piece of it which was there was a misguided belief that you could market musicals to men as opposed to going the whole hog and making the movie more of a romantic fantasy.

The site's consensus states: "Its exuberant silliness is almost enough to make up for its utter inconsequentiality, but Rock of Ages is ultimately too bland and overlong to justify its trip to the big screen.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Rock of Ages is pretty fun despite a terrible script, bland leads and awful wigs, mainly thanks to a performance by Tom Cruise as fictional hair metal rocker Stacee Jaxx.

[42] Steve Persall of the Tampa Bay Times praised Cruise's singing, and compared his performance to his earlier work as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire.

[43] In her review, Dana Stevens of Slate found Cruise's performance the "boldest use of the actor since Paul Thomas Anderson made him a rage-fueled motivational speaker in Magnolia".

[46] Claudia Puig, of USA Today, criticised the main leads of the film as "deadly dull dreamers" and the story as "tame and tone deaf".

D'Arienzo voiced disappointment in how the film depicted itself, stating, Instead of coming from the point of view of "I'm going to validate this and elevate it," they embraced the kitsch and just made it more kitschy.

"[6]Alec Baldwin, who played Dennis Dupree in the film, was also critical, calling it "a horrible movie" and "a complete disaster".

[49] Baldwin had asked New Line Cinema studio head Toby Emmerich to replace him in his role shortly before the beginning of production.

An extended cut is available on the Blu-ray,[55] which includes the deleted "Rock You Like a Hurricane" lap dance scene between Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) and Sherrie (Julianne Hough), which is also played in the theatrical version's end credits, as well as an extended version of "Waiting for a Girl Like You", between Drew (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie (Hough) (both scenes can also be found on YouTube).