THE HUGE PORN BIZ, NOT
I referenced in the above post that the "rumors" of porno grosses are all we have to go on. Not true. There several usually reliable polls and market surveys that indicate just what the grosses and costs are. In response to a query, Adult Video News' managing editor, Mike Ramone responded:.
"I don't know the exact methodology, it's a pie chart."
Asked to break the figure down into sales versus rentals, a standard practice among those who cover the video industry, he said he didn't think it was available and suggested we call the editor-in-chief, who didn't return phone calls.
Using the "most generous" sales and rental figures of $1.8 billion, there is no chance that the adult video business has revenues of $2 billion. This hardly compares to the sales and rentals of legitimate videos, which were roughly $20 billion last year, both according to Adams Media Research and Variety. (Neither
The nation's largest video distributor, said that there are as many as 13,000 video releases per year, check the porn sites for the staggering number. There are many niche markets--boy-boy, fat people, transvestites, freak shows--which add to the total. My personal fave is older one armed lesbians.
Adding up all the outlets, mail order, internet views and download, in store rentals, and retail stores that do carry porn (no more than 20% do) the latest honest estimate of the retail store porn gross is $800 million. Consider that video rentals and sales of feature films: $10.3 bil in rentals and $10.8 bil in sales, which are numbers far greater than the theater box office of $7.1 billion and you get sort of an idea of the porn "non business."
A typical porno release may sell 1,000 to 2,000 units. Using the high-end figure, the industry sells about 26 million units. If the average unit sells either directly or through rentals for $20--a high-end estimate given the fact that the number of titles makes the product a commodity--that means the adult video business grosses at best $520 million, not 2 billion.
Costs of production: most are in the hundreds of dollars class, translation: not very attractive women faking orgasms for drug money or food; sounds like my ex. There are some “high end” productions and if they cost 5K each without costs of reproduction and transportation, I’ll eat every DVD out there.
How about the “porno queens” who make a “killing?” Bullshit. The most successful is Jenna Jamison (below on left, and you'd smile too if you just conned Wall Street--Playboy Enterprises--- into buying your company and granting you your very own TV network). When she formed her own company and did her porno under her own banner, money started to come in. She was also
great looking (a rarity), smart, and did hundreds of them thus becoming the logo of the market. The rest? They use their porn status to hype their stripping performances and their “escort” businesses. I have it first hand from a girl who used to live next door to me in Encino that $2,500 to $5,000 per date is normal. If the guy wants to be seen in public with her, and plenty of rich guys do, it goes to $10K and up. Trips to Saudi can reward her as much as 50K.
Overall, the porn business is suffering like feature films and some of the causes are the same: high prices and poor quality but their problems are compounded by product glut. Not a business to get into.
An addition here: in order to show you how some lesser porn "stars" merchandise themselves, go to the commercial website of Savanna Samson, 
shown at left hustling her own brand of wine. At her site you'll see she merchandises her own lines of everything from tobacco to motorcycle parts. I have no idea how much she makes from all this. Her private personal site, where you can buy sexual advice and other things is HERE
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