A controversial new documentary about superstar rapper Lil Wayne has shot to the top of the iTunes movie charts.
QD3 Entertainment’s film The Carter is currently the No. 1 selling documentary on iTunes in the U.S.
In addition to landing the top slot on Apple’s iTunes U.S.’ music store, The Carter is also in the Top 10 on the Canadian iTunes music store alongside such blockbusters as Bruno and GI Joe.
“Having our Lil Wayne The Carter documentary place in the Top 10 on both U.S. and Canadian iTunes store within the first 48 hours, competing neck and neck with multi-million dollar studio films such as Bruno and GI Joe during Christmas season is quite a feat for a self distributed indie doc and beyond our expectations,” QD3 Entertainment CEO Quincy Jones III told AllHipHop.com. “We are very excited about continuing to innovate within the digital space.”
The Carter was released on November 17th and is an in depth look at the personal and professional life of rapper Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., is known for his rigorous touring schedule and frequent drug use, which is spotlighted in the documentary.
In April of 2009, a judge rejected a request by Lil Wayne’s lawyer to block the distribution of the DVD, due to several scenes in the movie which the rapper and his management objected to, reportedly because of his drug use.
The rapper’s management claimed they requested to have the questionable scenes removed, but those scenes were still in The Carter, when it premiered at the Sundance film festival in January.
Despite the lawsuit Jones told AllHipHop.com that the documentary’s release is in line with a digital distribution strategy the company has been developing in 2001.
“It was my goal since the inception of QD3 Entertainment in 2001 to have a strong focus on digital distribution and multi platform innovation,” Jones told AllHipHop.com. “Since 2001 our primary means of marketing have been organic and viral on digital platforms. Using this approach we’ve been able to sell over 2 million DVD’s via the QD3 (DVD) collection at physical retail….this is the era we have preparing for all along by retaining all rights to our content and were about to launch a couple of digital content and social media platforms by early 2010 utilizing our over 3,500 hour library of high quality content that includes films such as Tupac Shakur – Thug Angel and the multi platinum Beef.”
QD3 Entertainment’s The Carter was directed by Adam Bhala Lough and is currently available on iTunes for $14.99.