Fleshbot
According to some of the leading financial minds in the country, our current economic state is—what's the technical term? Oh yeah ... "not good." Consumer confidence is down, debt is up, and China is slowly poisoning us with lead toys that you can get for a $1.50 at Wal-Mart even though it cost you $4 in gasoline to get there. But that's not what worries Variety editor Peter Bart: It's the porn business, stupid! That's how he knows things are rough, because dirty DVD sales are down. We really are in trouble!
Except ... DVD sales have been trending downward for years now, way ahead of the rest of the economy's troubles; it's more about the changing options for porn buyers than a general lack of consumer confidence. Bart also claims that guys can't find "gonzo" DVDs, even though in the next paragraph he points out that online porn (where all the money is going) is driven by short clips devoid of any story or frills. Hmmm. (Also, "Deep Throat" was somehow to blame for the '70s energy crisis.)
Maybe there's something to the fact that when porn does bad, we all do bad. But it's a pretty flimsy link if you ask us. After all, what else are people supposed to turn to when they don't have anything else to spend their money on? Just because you didn't want to spend $34.95 for another Jenna Jameson compliation disk and decided to jerkoff to something you found on RedTube instead didn't force you to buy that bad mortgage too, did it?
· "Hard times ahead as porn goes soft?" (variety.com)
· Thumb via TeraPatrick.com via sxx.com, via askjolene.com
Comments
I thought porn was doing badly when I noticed that Jenna Jameson evidently can't afford to eat.
"I"m from Hollywood!" is no excuse for all those false double entendres, Peter.
There's an overabundance of Gonzo porn. Where is he looking?
Maybe he was using sales from brick and mortar porn shops ... who would buy it there when websites like Empire and Gamelink sale it for half of the cost! IF YOU PAY $34.95 for a JENNA JAMESON compilation, YOU GOT RIPPED OFF!
Last point: why pay for it on disk, when its free (for the most part) on the internet.
ME, I'm waiting for a price drop on those BLU-RAY titles! $49.99 a piece, JESUS! That's double the price of a new release mainstream Blu-ray title. Who are they kidding???
correlation is not equal to causation, that is all.
For the small nookie blog I run, I have a sponsorship account with a popular adult DVD website, and have had that account since September 2006. Commissions have been steady since April 2007, with all but December being a joke in terms of dollar amount. Since January of this year, however, I have easily out earned the prior 9 months - so much so that I have been able pay a couple of my monthly utility bills with what I earn from the commissions. And this is, so far, despite the fact that my total account hits are down for the same period that my commissions are up..
So if porn is a bellwether for the economy, I'm hopeful.
I know I've said this before in other posts, but I still get all my porn on DVD, purchased online at discount prices found at sites like adultdvdmarketplace.com. What can I say, I also love to have a large mainstream movie collection on DVD, so for me porn is the same way. I just don't file "Big Wet Brazilian Tits" right next to "The Boys From Brazil" on the DVD shelf! :)
But what about all the women who move into &/or return to stripping as the job market tanks & they get laid off? Is the gentlemen's club not the most public face of sex work? The sex industry is more than just film, Mr Hollywood Big Shot Editor Man.
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