$500,000 is a very high number.... Girls that work regularly can make $250,000. As for the website aspect, few are in control of their own websites. Most of the performers I know are lucky to make $1000 to $3000 a month. The vast majority of the money goes to the owners of the programs they have signed on with. Michael www.AdultBizLaw.com
I just love "attacking" your opinion because you're always wrong. Feel free to show me where I didn't address the topic at hand and exactly what part of what I said that could be considered "nonsense." And speaking of addressing the topic at hand, you haven't done it in quite some time now; your focus seems to be all on me. Maybe you're finally out of crackpot theories, wishful thinking and begging for information that I happen to know you're not ever going to get. What you call "nonsense", I call bursting your bubble. If I'm wrong somewhere or somehow, please prove it. Otherwise, if you can't, shut up. Until then, I'll be waiting for all the information about how much money people in the business make to start rolling in here. The guaranteed continued non-responses to that request in this thread will continue to validate my own posts. That's the bottom line. Hate it or love it, that's the truth. You want answers. It's not my fault you don't like the ones you've been receiving. As for not paying attention, you're right. I tend to skip silly comments like these:That was you, right? I would've thought that common sense would've told you that if that bit of info was public news, the person who wrote it might've used the performer's name in their post. But hey, it doesn't hurt to ask anyway if it made AVN.com or some other site so that you can...oh, that's right, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO with that sort of information! Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 11/6/2008 8:03:03 PM
I'm not a huge fan of interactive DVDs but Gina's was by far the best and most creative I've ever seen. You did a great job of covering most of the senarios I like to see and having Francesca Le in a scene was the icing on the cake that made me want to buy it despite not being a big fan of interactive (but a big fan of Gina). Also, you're right about the Gina promotion machine because one of the first places I heard about the DVD was from a Gina appearance on Howard Stern.
I remember about a year ago Kami Andrews said that a performer put down her income as $520,000 on her tax return. As far as I remember it wasn't a *big* performer. It depends on the girl, some have signed the website rights over but there are plenty who haven't.
without revealing too much but just to give everyone an idea of what most girls in the industry (that i know) make per scene for a straight boy/girl: anywhere from $800-$2000. i'd say more than 80% of the girls fall into the this rate range. now with that said, yes... i do know some that are making more than that for a straight boy/girl scene. as far as contracts, websites, product sales, etc... i have no idea of any of those numbers. hope that's a wee bit helpful. xoxo
When you say "straight" I'm assuming that doesn't include anal. I wonder how much more does anal, or creampies, or licking up creampies or whatever add to the price. There are girls I've never seen not doing anal in a scene. I have to wonder if everydirector/company is willing to pay extra for anal when they may not even particulary even want one.
Costs for website are minimal, I used to build them when at uni. Things like CCbill will take a massive chunk for sure. I saw a documentary on Janeyweb.com 3-4 years ago, amateur couple her husband is her business manager. At one point it said projections for next month were £17,000 thats about $34,000. Re-evaluating I think it is naieve to believe most performers are getting figures like that from a website - however it is possible. Porn up until 2003 (I do not know about after that) was the thing that sold most on the internet. I think anal & creampie scenes are likely to yield more, there is certainly more risk involved with creampies.
Based upon my experience with internet-based businesses, I believe personal websites have the potential to be big revenue generators for performers. But as has been suggested above, most girls farm-out their websites to companies--who pay them a small portion of the revenue received from the site. You can tell these company-controlled performer websites because they usually have the same "look" and layout. What the performer is being paid for is the use of her name. The company pretends to be her, posting her schedule and appearances, writes her on-line diary, answers questions on her site Message Board, and selects/produces photos/videos for up-dates. A different business model is when the girl has control over her site, and is involved in running it every day. She is the employer, not the employee, and has others working for her producing the site. She also has to have a good head for business. But, depending upon the site's monthly paid members, she can make the same (or more) money than she would doing scenes all month for dvd companies--especially given the slow down in dvd productions. Plus she owns any scenes she produces for her website--and can release them, later, on dvd, generating more income. As a rule, I don't believe any performer has become wealthy strictly from performing in scenes for others.
Do you have any idea what a professional website costs? You're looking at 5 figures minimum just for either getting one build or for buying software for it. Not to mention hosting, if you have a lot of video's that will be a lot of bandwidth, not free either. Even if you have your own servers it's costly. Jacco
pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07
Posted - Nov 8 2008 : 9:59PM
If the average female performer is getting $800-$2000 a scene I think that reinforces the fact that claims that the porn industry is a gigantic 'multi-billion' dollar industry in the US are exaggerated. I've read claims that it generates more $ than professional sports, clearly BS. I may depend on how one is defining 'pornography' but this Salon article on Evil Angel in 1999 says that EA grossed $7 million annually, with Stagliano taking home approx. $1 million. I would guess that profits since then have dropped due to the internet. If one of the biggest and most successful porn companies is clearing $7 million who is making the billions that are so often claimed?
If you look at companies like Reality Kings and Brazzers, thats were the real money is. Not to mention the hotels, GM and pay-per-view companies. Michael www.AdultBizLaw.com
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Knuckle Kids Deactivated User
287 Posts 4/08
Posted - Nov 9 2008 : 1:30AM
I'm sure they are using a broader definition of the word "Porn" limited not just to the manufacturers of porn DVDs. There are magazine sales, toys, arcade booths at the porn stores, web content, DVD sales, and also DVD rentals. Thus 1 copy of 1 DVD could generate $20 in revenue for the Company, and then be rented out 100 times at $4 and then sold again on clearance for $10 to another smaller store and then they rent it for $3 50 times. Therefore, 1 DVD can generate $580. Creative accounting in the entertainment business was perfected in LA, so I'm sure some of it carried over to Chatsworth.
Beate Uhse had a turnover of about 300 million Euro in 2007. They probably are the biggest company in this business. But they not only make movies, they have shops, tv, even a toy factory and lots more. Jacco
pornography wasn't sex but fantasies of an impossibly hospitable world 12377 Posts 9/07
Posted - Nov 9 2008 : 6:06AM
Good points from all of you. Jacco, I was referring to the US not Europe. I know that in the US Adam & Eve use to make serious scratch from mail-order sale of sex toys and DVDs, I wonder how they are doing now with the internet?
If "highest paid" means "highest paid for performing in a scene"--not total income in a year, then it's probably a Contract Girl who is the highest paid. Contract Girls, with big companies like Vivid, Digital Playground, or Wicked don't perform in as many scenes as freelancers, but when you divide what they get paid over a year by the number of scenes they perform, it usually comes out to more per scene than the $800-$2000 per scene most day-rate girls get. Contract Girls for Vivid are believed to be paid the most, but they're not paid the same amount. If seniority counts, then Monique Alexander, of the current Vivid Contract Girls, may be the highest paid performer in Vivid's stable. And this should make her the highest paid performer.
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Narcissus Deactivated User
Love Thyself 418 Posts 1/08
Posted - Nov 9 2008 : 12:26PM
finally, some straight talk. thanks Sandy. that at least gives everyone a reference point.between these two post we are starting to get some clarity. we appreciate it. so, to really understand what we are talking about here we might have to break this down into two seperate categories - highest paid female performer per scene - highest paid female performer per scene (contract girl) - i would think it's not really comparing apples to apples by grouping them together. contract girls shooting feature scenes do alot more work and put more time into each scene that a day-rate girl. much more goes into it. so, it'd be difficult to compare contract girls and day-rate girls equally in regards to how much they make per scene.
^I would say that yes, it's not a fair comparison at all to compare contract to non-contract pay on a per-scene basis. The vast majority of the money paid to a contract star is for all the other things they do for the company, in terms of promo stuff, appearances, etc. If we just divided how much they make by how many titles they're in, then I think someone like Hillary Scott, who signed a one-year deal worth $1,000,000 with Sex-Z pictures, would be making a fucking killing on her per-scene rate.
^Really? I stand corrected. For some reason I thought it was a multi-year deal, but she got a million for the first year. But that seems wrong. In this article it says "The deal calls for Hillary to produce, direct and star in numerous feature movies and gonzo projects over the next few years." Even still, if over four years, at $250,000/yr, and, say, 20 scenes/yr (because she really doesn't shoot that many scenes anymore), if you just divide it out that's still $12,500/scene. I know, she's paid for directing as well - but my point was that it doesn't make sense to compare contracts to per-scene gonzo rates, because they're entirely different things.
^^If the point behind discussing who is the highest paid performer is a way of seeing who is "valued" most in the porn marketplace, then the per/scene amount, without separating contract girls from non contract girls, makes sense to me. Because what a performer gets paid per scene speaks to her value in selling product. And for the record, I think ALL performers are underpaid.
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Knuckle Kids Deactivated User
287 Posts 4/08
Posted - Nov 9 2008 : 4:30PM
That is assuming that she is getting paid a salary versus get a piecemeal rate.
@Derek117: well not really, because what contract performers earn also goes towards making all the various publicity appearances they're expected to make. They don't get extra for that. Whereas a non-contract performer might get paid by a particular company to sign for them at AEE, for example, a contract performer wouldn't receive any extra pay. She's just expected to show up. So simply looking at her contract salary and the number of scenes she does, and ignoring the other things she's paid to do for the company, would skew the value of what she's really making per scene.
I worked for over 100 different clients during my time as a web designer. I know what it costs, you (clearly) do not. I am not gonna get into this, but trust me 5 figures - Your numbers are way, way off. Some sites are reputed to cost $100k+ but to suggest you need to pay that is just wrong. You can get newbie programs that let you build a basic site for as little as $300.
Click to expand
Such a basic site for $300 is not going to be of much use for a professional company. And I do know what websites cost, it's my job. I am not talking about some amateur website here. Jacco
From reading the reporting on signings and what some contract girls say in interviews, blogs, and message boards my understanding is that (at least some) contracts are pretty detailed. And they break down each item the girl is to be paid for, like # of scenes, # of personal appearances, reimbursement rates for travel & hotel accommodations to events, and more. So, if that's true, it seems to me that we can establish a per scene rate for Contract Girls. I think it would be interesting to know. And, my guess is that companies don't want this info out--which is why contracts are so "private" and sometimes have so much included in them, that it's difficult to figure out the per scene rate of contract girls.
Edited by - Derek117 on 11/9/2008 11:00:30 PM
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Narcissus Deactivated User
Love Thyself 418 Posts 1/08
Posted - Nov 9 2008 : 11:48PM
from what i heard in the past, sometimes contract girls are actually paid less per scene than their gonzo-girl counterparts. which makes sense. the company wants to get kinda a bulk-rate by contracting a girl for a year of scenes and the girls might want a gurantee of x amount of dollars for the year. so, the contract girl gets a major company backing and promoting her, building her fame... and financial stability. seems like this arrangement might be mutually beneficial. but getting back to the topic, i would have to say that contract girls do not necessarily make more than the day-rate girls per scene. in some cases, i'm willing to bet there are some gonzo girls making more per scene then some contract girls. and vice versa. so, the question remains... which girls out there are actually the highest paid per scene?
It's not that contract girls are paid less it's just that a girl not under contact is free to make more because she's not confined to shooting a finite number of movies per year for a single company. A popular gonzo girl can work as often as she likes. Which would mean, yes, you'd be correct in assuming that there is always the potential for a girl in gonzo to make more money than someone who is under contract and yes, vice versa, of course. It all depends on the popularity and demand of the girl not under contract.I said it on the first page of this thread but fine, I'll repeat it: Amy Ried, Jenna Haze, Sasha Grey, Adrenalynn and/or Shyla Stylez (mind you, that's not an all-inclusive list and just guesses on my part). But if you're waiting for some kind of confirmation, you'll be waiting a long time. And if you consider someone telling you "anywhere from $800-$2000" to be "straight talk"...that's a $1200 range. Hardly specific or straight. And who here didn't know that already? Edited to add: Being the highest paid per scene doesn't really mean a whole helluva lot anyway. You can demand a higher rate than everyone else out there, but if no one or very few people can afford to shoot you it means you'll be working less and thus typically making less than someone who charges less and thus works more. Do you want to be the $2000 per scene girl who works once or twice a month if she's lucky or would you rather be the girl who makes half that per scene but works three times a week? Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 11/10/2008 12:39:04 AM
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Narcissus Deactivated User
Love Thyself 418 Posts 1/08
Posted - Nov 10 2008 : 1:20AM
look who decided to show up right behind me, like clock work. ugh. well, i guess it would depend on how much a performer is into the guys she's fucking in the scenes. hell, some girls are so into it i imagine they might wanna fuck these guys as many days a week as their pussies allow. but generally speaking, if i were in their position... i'd much rather be a $2000 per scene performer. maybe some girls don't want the wear and tear to fuck 10 times for $10,000 when they'd only have to shoot five scenes for the same amount being higher paid per scene. btw - i am sure there are plenty of people here that had no idea about what a female performer makes per scene. alot of the world seems to believe porn stars make $10,000+ per scene or even more. alot of people just have no reference point at all. so, getting any numbers at all seems like "straight talk", at least for this board. Edited by - narcissus on 11/10/2008 1:25:30 AM
I do not really understand why this is such an issue.... but I will try to clarify. I have reviewed "contracts" for performers from basically every major DVD studio. I have reviewed contracts for some of the major websites. I represent a major agency that deals with over a hundred gonzo performers. As with anything, price is based upon supply and demand. Right now, a lot of performers are lowering their rates or turning towards other avenues for income because of a lack of work. Most studios income are way down so their contracts are not as generous as they once were. A performer's rate is fluid. It really depends on whether he/she needs to work. A performer that may have had a $2500 scene rate might now have to accept $1500 for the same scene or a girl that wanted $1000 for b/g might be down to $700. It used to be that contract stars made $100,000 + per year. Lately, I havent seen one studio offering anything near that. It use to be that most studio contracts would require about 24 scenes per year. Now, scene requirements might be as high as 48 scenes per year. However, they arent paying the same per scene rate. The golden age of contract stars is over. The days of high paid gonzo performers are also slowly coming to an end. I am not saying that performers can no longer make a living... its just not as good as it use to be. No different for the studio owners as well as website owners. The performer that will be the highest paid in the future will control her image, name and her professional personality.... from start to finish. This industry will go the way of the music industry. Michael www.AdultBizLaw.com
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Narcissus Deactivated User
Love Thyself 418 Posts 1/08
Posted - Nov 10 2008 : 4:53AM
^^ good post. the porn biz is merely a microcosm for the rest of America. everything said above could be applied to alot of different industries. (too bad "W" and company aren't working on bailing out the adult biz.) but even with all this great insight, we must keep in mind that there IS an answer to the main question of the threads topic. regardless of how great or how bad the adult industry does... there's always gonna be a female performer that is the highest paid per scene. since i have no idea.. i'll take a guess and maybe this will spark someone to reveal more info - Alexis Texas - $3000 per straight boy/girl scene. (this is just a guess-timate) oh, and CJ - hey, what can i say? i couldn't resist.
+1. I agree this will be true in the future. And may have even been somewhat true in the past. Jenna Jameson's career pretty much fits this description.
Because pay equates to perceived "value." And because the porn industry is filled with so much hype about EVERY performer being a "Star" and every scene "great" (and receiving an award is often a matter of politics, rather than quality) that the only Reality Check is the performer's per scene rate.
What do you think is driving that - I would guess technology & competition but what would you say?I would totally agree with that ^I was talking high end, flash etc. Still never charged or got 10k for 1 off site even though I did make a close to a six figure salary in a good year. None of the other designers I met worked with did either - only the big companies with a full team got that - 2advanced.com etc, or maybe for something really sophisticated & code heavy - and a porn site is not. The industry is so competitive and current financial situation - nobody would pay it imo. I generally don't think there is much money in website production, why I quit and now get real money. Regarding packages etc, one of the sites I helped with was made almost entirely with frontpage but still got 150k hits day... Anyway this is way off track. In short, still think you are way off. Edited by - joel on 11/10/2008 3:27:29 PM Edited by - joel on 11/10/2008 3:27:54 PM
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Taylor Von Bailey Deactivated User
2116 Posts 8/06
Posted - Nov 10 2008 : 6:16PM
I have no idea about porn economics or anything but these are the girls who should be the highest paid female performers IMHO: Amy Reid Audrey Bitoni Cassandra Calogera Claire Dames Dakoda Brooks Lisa Ann Natasha Nice Penny Flame Taylor St. Claire Velicity Von I would hope that the hottest and most enthusiastic girls would be earning the most money. Of course these girls are the ones who deserve the most in my opinion and I'm sure I've upset or offended somebody so I apologize if I did but these girls sure seem to be the best in class. Does anybody have any figures or any idea who actually does make the most? How much would a standard blowbang scene cost? I'm always very curious about this sort of thing.
150k hits a day is peanuts. And the cost of a website is not just the design, it's the code, the servers, the bandwidth, etc. And if you think pornsites are not code heavy, you're wrong. We used to have 2-3 programmers just for our sites. Jacco
A script heavy site is eBay. A porn site is nowhere near as complicated. Basic PHP, perl is all you need. What function of a porn site could possible constitute more? Bandwidth you up depending on need. You don't just launch out with 500gb bandwidth. You don't necessarily need your own servers. Code is part of the design, no site will work without. Hits depend on the type of site. I made more money than I could count, let alone spend from a site with 50k hits a week. You should be retired if you are getting 300k hits a day or more, I'd love to know which site that is out of interest.
Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99
Posted - Nov 11 2008 : 9:31AM
Joel, you're not even factoring in content. Pornstar sites need original content. I'm glad you made so much money, but that's not the reality for pornstars or most people running websites.
lol. I can't say I have run a porn website - I made my money from selling computer products... Anyway, surely the star is the content? How hard can it be to put together a few movies, or perhaps even do a live webcam show once a week? That seems to be what they do at ideepthroat.com (who has more than 1k members) and all that ppl do at sites like ifriends. But anyway, well if 150k hit rate is peanuts... lets say 1% buy your subscription... sod it - you do the math! But anyway, the website thing has gone way off track. Someone previously questioned the 1000 members which is how this started, but re-reading it he might have been questioning the maths... I meant 1000 members for a year, not just 1 month. Edits - I am illiterate. Edited by - joel on 11/11/2008 9:51:36 AM
Downloads, different payment systems and their security, to name a few things.Our webshop already uses more than twice that. Do you have any idea of the bandwidth generated by the free promo clips and such? And without promotion you're not going to make a living.You can not run a high traffic site without at least a dedicated server, a shared server won't cut it.A webdesigner is not a programmer or vice versa, you'll end up with either crappy code or crappy design. Those are separate jobs in the real world.Looks like you don't know the difference between hits and visitors. We get more than 300k hits per day and if I was retired I wouldn't be posting here. As you said in your reply to Steph, you haven't run a porn site, so maybe you should listen to the people who do run pornsites? Jacco Edited by - jacco on 11/11/2008 11:42:46 AM
DAMN i had a feeling, girls are really earning these days and i amtalking abt "Per scene GONZO". Yet beside Dana Dearmond and Sasha i read few other names on sum pornstar hiring site i cant remember the name, highest paying gals Memphis Monroe Tiffany Holliday Naomi St Claire :-)
It's called being multi-talented. You can get people good at both believe it or not. My assertion was that you didn't need to spend 10k. I didn't say you couldn't. If you are employed a team it will probably set you back, I would never disagree with that. I never employed a website team and still made stacks. Edited by - joel on 11/11/2008 6:47:52 PM
I'll have to watch tomorrow but the mainstream tv entertainment/celebrity show, "The Insider," is doing a series on the Australian Porn Industry (???) and tomorrow they're featuring one of my all-time favs, Jodie Moore. The tag line for tomorrow's show had a picture of Jodie and asked the question: "Is she the richest woman in the porn industry?" I thought she was retired. But I guess she just went home. Maybe they'll have some useful info on the type of money performers can really make in porn--beyond the industry hype.
Posted - Nov 6 2008 : 6:17PM
Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 11/6/2008 8:03:03 PM
