Jan
26
Financial Woes Deflate Porn Biz
January 26, 2009 | 20 Comments
[Edits 6:38 pm.] The mainstream media has clearly overfed itself on the same dish of financial woe-is-me soup. It’s time for a new course, and MSNBC has provided it (with help from the publicity-seeking antics of Larry Flynt and Joe “Girls Gone Wild” Francis and their wink-nudge plea for a government bailout for the skin biz). An article by Michael Ventre titled “Even Porn Industry Hit by Slumping Economy” has struck a chord as it pings around the interwebs. “They are definitely struggling,” sez one economist. “[T]his is the first time I can honestly say the adult business is not recession-proof,” intones AVN publisher Paul Fishbein. Too much crappy porn is partially to blame, he says; so is freely available porn on the interwebs, especially if you don’t care about quality. “[I]t seemed in the past we could hang in there,” says Steven Hirsh, president of Vivid Entertainment Group. “This time, though, we’re dealing with a downturn in DVD sales at the same time there is an economic downturn.” However, the article quotes performer-director Rob Rotten of Punx Productions, who is unfazed by what he perceives as a deck-clearing “transition period” for the adult business. He believes a return to real quality is essential. “I think the general public just got sick of paying $49.95 for a poorly edited, poorly shot, poorly made video,” Mr. Rotten says. Here, here! Chime in, Constant Readers, with what you think gay adult should do to weather the recession.
See also:
* “Financial Woes Hit Gay Adult“
[H/T Constant Reader Will G.]
Comments
20 Comments so far
With my genre its the garbage being shot in Brazil and Thailand!
I hardly produce anything anymore via my Prodction Company because of decline in dvd sales.
Thanks for the shout-out, JC (and for remembering the “G”!). I, in turn, should credit Mr. Porn_review, who posted this article on the ATKOL forum.
http://atkol.com/replies.asp?Forum=3&Topic=10357&ScrollAction=Page+2
We’ve started buying and selling Used DVD porn to help out the customers…
Better quality thats a given and a price point of 29.95 or even 19.95 for DVD’s there is simply NO EXCUSE for a DVD priced 3 times what I will pay for say the Dark Knight a film with a 100million plus budget.
At THOSE prices people will pay for the box packaging and content.
Its simple economics if your product is not selling YOU LOWER the Price!
If you cant make it on the lower price
You pull a circuit city
You go out of business
Economics 101
Even a $29.95 DVD is going to have a tough time competing with sites like Randy Blue and Corbin Fisher that update 2 or 3 times per week at a monthly rate that’s comparable…
I know this point’s been made before but the ‘downturn’ in the adult business has less to do with the economy as a whole and is more to do with the shifting paradigm of selling and delivering porn. For years, consumers were held hostage – if you wanted to watch porn, you were told: “shell out $50+ bucks for a VHS/DVD that ‘might’ have a couple of scenes worth watching, or go without”. Well, consumers have more and better options now, and not all of them mean resorting to piracy or other illegal means either.
I’m really not receiving the message that the ‘adult industry’ is that concerned that there’s ‘too many titles being released’ and ‘too much badly made porn’ out there. Instead I read their concern to be extreme unhappiness that the members of the traditional producing/distributing network can no longer take their pieces of the pie that resulted in $50 per-unit price tags anymore! These guys made plenty of $$ on the VHS tapes I threw out when I moved earlier this month, so they had better start moving to catch up with their consumers or find another line of work!
I wasn’t there at the time, but I imagine the makers of carriages felt and complained the same way when they saw people lining up to buy Model-Ts. And governments in those days didn’t feel obliged to spend taxpayer dollars either to prop up dying industries (but that’s a whole other rant! LOL).
another thing that’s hitting gay porn hard – (no pun intended)is that so many gay for pay stars are ruining it. Instead of getting men who actually enjoy sex – we get lackluster performances from men who looked like they’d rather be ANYwhere else than at the studio.
Its odd the you guys complain about paying $60 for a dvd or tape when the price for these products in 1980 was… $59.99. It’s like your getting $149.13 worth of movies (what $60 in 1980 dollars is worth today) for the same price.
Or look at it this way: for the movie you bought in 1980 for $60, today you’d pay $21.86 when taking inflation into account. I guess you could say that paying $30 for access to an online site means you’re paying eight bucks and change more, for the same thing. How smart is that?
Moreover, do you really look at the product as the physical media it is delivered on, suggesting that you received no value for that $60 you paid for a tape oh-so-many years ago?
There is little doubt that the porn industry is in transition from pieces of plastic you buy and take home to delivery online or delivered to the set-top box. And with the efficencies realized with virtual delivery, the price will, of course, decrease (and not inconsequentially, the audience increase).
But with all due respect, DeWayne, comparing a blue movie to The Dark Knight (with its $185 million budget) is like comparing apples and oranges. Just because the content is delivered on the same media does not mean it is even remotely similar. Unless, of course, you’d like to start comparing budgets and box office ($531 million domestic and an estimated $3 billion worldwide — so far) to the risk and reward of making a porn film…
The kicker is that porn is what drives technology, from the VCR to online streaming. The very fact that you had a VCR, have a DVD player, and can watch full motion graphics on your PC is due in large part to pornographers pushing the medium. Do you recall the failure of laserdisc? No porn. And here’s a prediction: the failure of Blu-Ray. Why? A closed system that is very unfriendly with adult material.
Ultimately, the market will determine how much you pay for your porn. It may go to nothing (have you seen xtube?) and it may even go up in price (like, say, paying $30 a month for what you could own 25 years ago for $21). But, like anything, what you’re willing to pay directly impacts what you’re going to get (again, have you seen xtube?).
Very insightful post, Jamie, but I have one bone to pick:
Speaking of apples and oranges, how can you compare a single $21 videocassette from 25 years ago (maybe 80 minutes, four scenes) to a $30-a-month online membership? Indeed, if one chooses instead to make a one-time, non-recurring payment for a single-month membership, for about $5 more, you get access to hundreds and hundreds of hours of content on many sites, most of which content is now DRM-free and downloadable to your hard drive for you to keep forever, if you want. So saying that we are now paying more “for the same thing” is a dubious argument at best, wouldn’t you agree? Far from being the “same thing,” I would say that there is simply no comparison.
Jamie I agree their is a HUGE difference in what a main stream Hollywood film makes vs porn.
The point I am making is this.
The consumer can BUY a Flashy-feature packed DVD for 18-22 dollars at Target
If you expect him to pay 60 bucks for a low budget,dimly lit,badly acted porno that is a no brainer.
Its why DVD porn is in the Shit Can.
Now to balance this out some people in Gay Porn are thinking ahead and getting creative.
Falcon offers NEW RELEASES to Online members at 24.95 even non-members get a discount over retail stores with NR priced at 49.95
Retail is dying faster than the Gay Porn DVD sales.
Oh Jamie I bought my first porno
The Boys of San Fransisco in 1982 (before I had bought the $1199.00 RCA VHS the next month) I paid 99.00 by mail. The video had 7 scenes too.
yes Porn was and is a technological driver.
I like millions of people bought that first VHS and DVD box for the porn.
I had two Laser Disc machines and have a fortune in discs, porn was available thru Vivid from about 88 on by then it was too late for the best damn format until Blue Ray.
I have a lemonade stand. I sell premium cups of freshly-squeezed lemonade garnished with sliced lemon. I charge one dollar per eight ounce cup. I have a brisk business. A week later another stand opens right next to me and offers free eight ounce cups of lemonade. The ingredients aren’t quite as fancy, but the result’s the same. The only condition for the free cup is that you have to drink it from a one plastered with ads. Uh, hello??
1. lower the prices THOUGH I’m willing to pay for a DVD that’s hot, yet it’s difficult to find out unless u rent it beforehand
2. get rid of the gay4pay bores
3. get rid of directors who haven’t got a clue of what-where- and how to film
4. get rid of piss, violence and spit madness which doesn’t mean i don’t like it hard in the right proportions
5. on-line? Randyblue? Nope i want my porn on my dvd television screen not on my computer for various reasons : privacy, security, quality, download problems and the companies’ subscription madness: i HATE the word ‘recurring’ and ‘automatically……
Dark knight did not make 3 billion dollars worldwide
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=darkknight.htm
Let’s face it, gay porn land is a pretty Alice in Wonderland world, and in times like these, the mad hatters get noisier. But to understand the industry’s troubles, look in part to the past. Most of the great leaders in the industry are gone. They are being replaced by a crop of very bright people, who are making very good money, and who keep a low profile. You don’t read about them much (except about their product) and they run a tight ship and stay focused on that, and their customers. Those people will ride this out. The rudderless ships of great companies past, who lost their captains long ago, those are the ones suffering. The reportage is weak because the industry is so inbred. Most of the “reporters” make money from those they report on.
Porn on the web should be OUTLAWED! It would be a simple solution to ‘our’ problems. Let’s see the ‘big’ on-line sites actually try to produce something with real production values.
Amen to the quality issue. A prime example is Raging Stallion Studios “To the Last Man” which sold out because of the amazing quality and value inherent in the final product available to those customers interested in buying this 4 disk set, which there are obviously a multitude.
Even major production companies are feeling the pinch of this waning economy by slashing prices, not their first choice I’m sure, but even big leaguers know we have to roll with the punches of these modern times.
The poorly thought out and difficult to enforce structure of COPA has hurt the industry more than anything else. I really like the idea of one centralized HIV testing center and one centralized age verification department that issues a verification number that X title film complies with all applicable federal and state regulations. This alone would be a huge help to everyone who not only produces porn, but even the journalistic and promotional websites like ours that simply discuss and talk about them. It’ll be years before the poisonous effects of the Bush Administration and the previous 30 years of Republican rule (with 1 brief 8 year respite which Bush obliterated the positive effects from by the way) start to dissipate, but all we can do is be hopeful that change is underway and grateful that it’s not Bush III.
Fortunately there are still a cadre of Quality Directors like Joe Gage, Jerry Douglas, and Jett Blakk that know how to incorporate a good plot with wonderful sexual tension as well as how to deliver powerful on screen performances from their models.
I like the artistry and skillful cinematography that directors Lucas Kazan, Jett Blakk, John Bruno, Marty Stevens, John Rutherford, Kristofer Weston, Robert Drake, Steven Scarborough, George Duroy, Chris Ward, Ben Leon and Brian Mills deliver consistently.
I’m looking forward to seeing what projects are still in the works from Chris Steele at Jet Set Men, Peter Z Pan at PZP Productions, Chi Chi LaRue and Doug Jeffries at Channel 1 Releasing and Chip Daniels at Centaur Films in 2009.
The economy is bound to be tough on everyone, just watching the news or listening to NPR on the radio underscores this. But, as we begin to implement the structural and developmental changes within our companies that we have kept on the back burner for a while, hopefully we’ll start to see positive results.
It’s going to take the efforts of everyone in the industry to heal from the devastating effects of this last administration and regrow from the sever pruning we’ve suffered, down to our roots in some cases, but all we can do is be hopeful and work for the best that we can. There are bound to be critics and nah sayers, time will prove whose right.
The Dark Knight for instance grossed $531,757,754 per http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm and because of it’s PG-13 rating it had a broader distribution and wider market availability as a main stream conventional media film than does even the best that the adult film industry has to offer. Even the straight side’s best film Pirates II Stagnetti’s Revenge with the broader support of such cable networked tv shows as G4 still has difficulty competing because of the rating issue and the number of available customers to buy their products which is often times ¼ of the available market for conventional films.
As a result of the smaller number of available customers and the intense federal/state regulations the adult film production companies had to increase their per dvd costs. An adult film title is considered successful if it at least sells 10,000 copies; for a main stream title to be considered a blockbuster a conventional film has to sell at least 1 million copies.
Considering that even the more basic gonzo style films cost $30,000 to make not to mention how much it must cost to produce anything along the lines of Stagnetti’s Revenge. With the smaller number of customers to buy adult film titles, the studios still have to make up the cost of production, it’s little wonder why the per dvd cost for adult film titles are more expensive than conventional main stream movies do.
It will always be harder for an X or XXX rated films to find reliable market share and many times the production companies are forced to market and distribute their productions themselves. There is a big difference between 20 million copies of a conventional film title sold at 19.99 or 29.99 totaling nearly 600,000 million verses the 10,000+ copies an adult film title typically sells at $69.99 if they’re lucky, but most of the time are sold a year or two later at retail discounted rates, usually 39.99 to 49.99; even at that these companies are lucky to get 400,000 per title out of which all of their production and fiscal expenditures must be derived.
As a customer, I understand the desire to pay the $19.99 to $29.99 rate comparable to conventional film titles; but when one stops to realize the parameters like these one can more realistically understand why the adult film titles are more expensive. There are fewer customers to buy adult film titles than there are for conventional film dvds; but even films like The Dark Knight are experiencing difficulty selling their product at the aforementioned rates, many are having to cut their prices to 9.99 and less to keep people buying in this harsh money strapped economy. As gaming systems have taken more of a hold in the market place, even conventional films are having a difficult time keeping their market share.
But yeah, Adult Film Titles are more expensive to buy and own, than conventional film titles that only simulate sex and can only offer plot and violence in a pale substitute in order to keep their market friendly ratings. Most customers don’t stop and think about why these are so much more experience. But I hope that after thinking reading far from expansive comment that it helps to explain a bit more why adult film titles are higher.
But yeah, even the adult film industry is being forced to reduced their per dvd prices to survive this harsh economy, but I highly doubt that adult film titles will ever be comparable per dvd to conventional film titles which have more customers to buy their products than adult film media materials do.
Muscle Lover some great points (and good reviews on your site BTW) but I think we are still fixating on the “shiny discs” a dying content delivery method and one that Blueray may stave off the collapse of by at most 5 years.
Online content delivery is the only viable future for Gay Porn. Sean Codys,Corbin Fisher, Randy Blue,Active Duty no one is hearing about their cutbacks.
One downside to an “online only” gay porn biz, its going to be a lot quieter for the porn gossips the online sites do not have an investment in faux controversy.
The two big Kahunas SC and CF rarely make a scene in the gossip rags or websites.
Just not their bag.
Yet the make much more cash than Chi Chi OR Falcon!
I would be interested in JC Adams take on the challenge of covering an “online industry”
with no geographic or physical center.
another pro-porn-online statement from dewayne which doesn’t surprise me. he belongs to that really tiny minority who’ re capable and willing to deal with all the humbug of on-linepornsites. Yes, kids can, middleaged people and thus i suppose the greater majority of porn buyers don’t. They still prefer to put in the dvd, switch to te scene they want and ge tover with it. Much faster and easier to handle than a computer, moreover computer screens and porn don’t match not to speak of the major security issues and downright irritating subscription methods.
VOD or Video On Demand is a relatively new concept, though Dewayne is right that sites like Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, Randy Blue, Active Duty have invested significant capitol and technological time into developing the methodology.
Conceivably VOD could save the production companies significant money on mastering, duplication and transport of what we consider conventional media methods that have become a comfort and solace to many customers.
Fans of VOD though might also want to consider the issues 2257, online viruses, high monthly subscription fees (per studio) and the yet untested (if I’m wrong on that I’m happy to read references to the contrary) standards for saving those scenes or films the customer may want to keep for later review/watching. These scare me, but not enough to forsake the concept of VOD.
Change is always a scary thing, I remember the furor when dvd first hit the market and everyone hated it because they didn’t want to give up their esteemed vhs tapes. VOD may very well fall into this same category, time will tell for sure.
I do know that even the reticent will have to get accustomed to this new method of delivery; especially since such major companies as COLT Studio Group and EuroCreme have discontinued their screeners available on dvd so that anyone who wishes to review their films have to utilize the download option now. EuroCreme has been like this for a couple of years now; Bel Ami Entertainment tried it, but has gone back to releasing dvd screeners after seeing a fall in the quantity and quality of the reviews of their films.
Even though some of us may personally prefer the soon to be obsolete media method of dvd, there is in fact a growing tide amassing in support Video on Demand.
I honestly do hope that download quality, saving options and federal/state regulations including 2257 (COPA) and FCC red tape and the whole nightmare of persecution from the U.S. Justice Department are resolved with such customer satisfaction that the transition takes off well.
Personally, I like the idea of VOD because it would save on the amount of dvd plastic accumulating in landfills and potentially could lead to personalized password protection capabilities that might add a further child protection element for when relatives come to visit. I love my dvds, but I really hate the storage issue and having to hide all of that when my sister and her kids come over; it’s a royal pain in the neck let me tell ya.
With External Hard Drive technology, one could potentially save those titles review sites like ours may want to review, but the movies are not clutter or storage concern when family and friends come over to visit, especially when they don’t call first.
I’m a bit torn on the VOD issue, because I do like DVD and I have some concerns over the details of VOD download; but I’m confident that as time progresses the issues that may hamper the development of VOD can be resolved; much the way DVD had it’s issues at first, but are now a forgotten memory.
We are on the verge of a technological shift, some customers like Frederic will have a zellots resentment and resist to the bitter end the shift, but if VOD saves the production companies money and can lead to more secure viewing methods for fans of gay erotica then I’m all for it, especially in this tight economic market we’re all facing; ie. cnn.com or any other news report.
It is still early, it’s anyone’s game; but it’s clear that customers are beginning to pair off into pro-DVD and pro-VOD camps. But that’s a lot like the vinyl verses cd debacle a few years ago too, same sort of thing, just a different media.
VOD has some promise, but there are some catches that still need resolution; however, I am hopeful that they will be worked out in the end; hopefully to the satisfaction and mutual pleasure of both the customer buying the product and the studios producing the gay erotica we all love so much.
Who knows, maybe VOD may speed the release to market of new titles and depending on which titles take off may steer the studios as to what content viewers want to see; again it’s still to early to tell, but it will be interesting to watch as it develops.
Ultimately I’m hopeful for the industry over all though.
There are some very good comments on here from all sides and it seems like a lot of the commenters are deep in the industry. I’m just someone who enjoy’s the videos. And I think it’s very fair to assign a lot of the blame to the economy, but not all. I think the industry, like so many others, got a little greedy and complicated the landscape, Falcon, Hot House, Kristen Bjorn, and Titan all try to force viewers to go online, they shorten the DVD scenes, or just leave them off all together in an attempt to entice us to “subscribe”. I don’t mind subscription sites that produce for the internet like Men at Play or Randy blue, because the content they produce makes sense for internet distribution, but trying to watch a 2.5 hour long Titan movie via VOD is cumbersome at best. My biggest problem with internet distribution is with companies like Randy Blue who’s content is only streamable, not downloadable, This fact alone has kept me from subscribing to Randy Blue. Men at Plan, on the other hand has downloadable clips, that I can watch over and over again, just like a DVD, and yes, I have subscribed to Men At Play, in the past and will again in the future.
Someone else mentioned one of the other problems with Gay porn, that is the extreme stuff, the anger, tattoos, spitting, pissing, and violence, Raging Stallion is the worst at this, but Titan isn’t far behind. For me this makes porn boring.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is lack of content diversity. Either you get Twinkish porn from the likes of Channel one or you get “angry old guy” porn or Bareback (unhealthy) porn, or Thug porn. Kudos to Hot House, and Colt for at least trying to make “normal guy” porn although these two companies tend to lean to much to the muscle guy crowd.
Another weak spot is talent diversity – not race diversity – but just not enough different guys, no matter how fun/handsome/sexy/hot they are I only want to see so much of Ty Lebouf, Vinnie D’Angelo, Max Schuttler, Jonathan Lowe, Diesel Washington, Eddie Diaz… the list goes on and on, and I realize this is not entirely up to the porn companies, they have to work with who’s willing to do the work. I could go on, but the Industry has lots of other minor issues that are irritating, Like filming in such a way that all you see is an anonymous dick going in and out of an anonymous hole. And Trying to hide it when a bottom doesn’t have a hard on – (I love soft dicks, they are VERY Sexy!). or not showing the guys faces, or just one posistion during a sex scene and it’s usually a “can’t see much” position like doggie or missionary. I don’t watch porn just to see a dick in a hole, I like seeing the whole guy, both the top and the bottom.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, is that the content AND the delivery mechanism are both important Some producers will show a guy getting pissed on but not a bottom with a soft dick (news flash – piss, spit and violence are not turn on’s for Everyone and every movie you make doesn’t have to have these things – are you listening, Raging Stallion!)
I realize the porn is a form of art, and that as ‘artists’ directors and actors should have a bit of freedom to do what they like, but remember, if you want to make money with your art you have to appeal to the largest possible audience and deliver the goods in a way that is appealing to the buyer.