Moxie posts to XPT:
I’ve been trying to get a handle on the economics in the adult industry for a couple of months. Conky recently directed me to the April AVN which had a cover story titled Ri$ing Talent Rate$ that lays the dirty numbers out in detail.
AVN looks at a number of factors to explain why despite the falling of DVD sales why the talent rates are rising, including increasingly more extreme acts demanded of performers and the rise of the "super pimp" as AVN terms agents like Derek Hay of LA Direct. The article also credits new money from internet sites as a factor in rising rates. However, there’s no mention of the fact that many girls now also have the escort option. The fact is there’s a new breed of fan that is stepping behind the camera of their own POV, except without the camera.
The bottom line on rates is as follow as far as generalities go:
BJ $450
G/G Vag $500
G/G Anal $900
B/G VAG $1,000
B/G Anal $1,200
DP $1,400Contract (Subject to Various Arrangements)
$100,000- $150,000 per year (Up from $60,000.00 mid 90’s)Guys $800-$1000
The rate for the guys seems like a bit high. But the article goes into great detail over the importance of a sure thing male performer as a female can be replaced on short notice. But if the guy can’t get it up, then you may not be able to find a replacement and an entire shoot day may be lost. Thus, there’s apparently a rise of the $1,000 per scene male performer who can ensure a shoot will happen. However, there are just a few that fall in this category.
But how credible are these figures. Says Ashley Blue ‘Never believe a prostitute when she says she makes a certain amount per hour." Lamented Ava Rose "On my first scene I got gypped. I got paid $350 to do a B/G." Rose now makes $3,000 per scene under her contract for Adam and Eve. (Frankly that doesn’t seem like a lot, especially if she’s only doing a minimal amount of scenes under the contract.)
The article really doesn’t talk much about the hold out strategy where performers hold off on certain acts in order to build interest to get a certain fee.
And what do the "super pimps" get? 10-20% from the performer and another $100 from the production company. Like any good pimp knows, if you have a lot of girls working the streets you make more money. so one has to wonder whether certain agents have exclusive relationships with producers, so what would cost one producer $1,000, might cost a producer exclusively using an agency less. If anything, it doesn’t seem like the "super pimps" are raising the rates on the ceiling as much as they are raising the floor. "Anyone reading this story should become a pimp. I think they should be teaching it in school. I think they are already teaching it at Chatsworth High" said producer Jim Powers.
Some blame Jules Jordan for the rising talent rates for paying exorbitant rates. "This really isn’t a team sport" responded Jordan.
The bottom line is its getting better to be a whore and more expensive to make adult content.
Attorney Michael Fattorosi posts:
The rates you listed are about 10% higher than I am aware of. However, for the most part, you are right on with your estimates.
For the DVD industry to survive you have to contemplate several other factors. The internet/VOD aspect as been cannabalizing DVD sales. Why buy a DVD of 5 scenes for $19.95 or even $29.95 when you can buy a website membership such as Bang Bros for the same price and literally get 100s of scenes or join HotMovies and pay .08 by the minute.
I think gonzo will be an exclusive internet genre and features will taking up much more self space in the adult stores in the coming years.
I also think there will be forces increasing the rates of the top notch performers, those with the ability to act and have sex on camera. In the inverse, those performers that can only do gonzo, their rates will decline but they will actually get more work.
From some of the mainstream actresses Ive talked to it appears we might be on the verge of an influx of talent who can act first and have sex on camera second, but their rates will be much higher, if not mean points on the backend.
Thats when adult will really "cross-over." We are obviously already seeing it with the celebrity sex tapes. Its just a matter of time until more B level actresses who are tired of making $50,000 a year trying to be a star give up and cross over to make $500,000 a year.
JRV posts:
Another way to look at it is to ask what the incremental cost of using better talent is. If you’re shooting an anal gonzo flick how much more does it cost to hire Kelly Wells instead of some newbie who thinks that "Enema" is the name of a rapper? How much money is really saved going barrel-bottom-fishing for performers? In any case the crisis in porn isn’t the performers but rather that near-total lack of directing talent. You’ve got companies trying to use their stockroom packing guys or their webmasters as directors, guys who feel a real sense of accomplishment at keeping the camera in-focus… PS. I have always believed that the "shot out" phenomenon was less about the consumers being tired of a performer and more about studios having no choice since the directors can’t do anything different. Nearly all porn directors are at best one-trick ponies, shooting the same scene over and over, release after release, with the variation between "Blown Out Butts 37" and "Blown Out Butts 38" being the talent used – the director doesn’t know how to shoot anything different, and so the performers must be changed to get any variation in the scenes beyond sofa color. /blockquote> Conky posts:
There are several interesting elements at play here. Number one, if you want to make money in porn, you either shoot premium content with quality performers, locations and make up talent, or you carve out a unique niche. Jules fills the first market, Jeff fills the second. If you’re not aiming for either of those two targets, then you’re making subsistence porn and earning < six bucks a unit wholesale. Re-orders are the lifeblood, no doubt, and like DanG says, quality product has legs. Once we really start getting into IPTV and VoD as the consumers’ first choice for buying, and ditch pressing, packaging, wholesale and retail cuts, it’ll be really interesting to see just how the market reacts and what sort of content sells. JRV, I’m with you on the directing talent front, and I’d go further than that. I was re-reading Shane Bugbee’s Club Satan thread the other day and he states in there that he made the film ‘for himself’. We’re seeing way too much of that today–producers who shoot what they’d want to see instead of what the market demands.
