Theres one porn every minute

 Posted on July 21, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  892 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Adult-film biz mirrors H'w'd

HOLLYWOOD — As with the VCR and the Internet, porn led the charge into DVD.

Though the film biz has found a great sideline in direct-to-DVD, for porn it isn’t a sideline — it is the industry. (Free-standing X-rated theaters are about as rare as a press-shy porn star.)

And, like mainstream direct-to-DVD, the biz is largely sell-through.

Hollywood and the adult-film biz have other things in common, including a fight for shelf space (even more acute for porn, with an estimated 10,000 new titles a year) and the challenge of building buyer/renter awareness amid rising marketing budgets.

Few adult titles are, however, evergreen.

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Hardly any porn films are printed to celluloid. And while major industry distribs like Wicked Pictures and Vivid Video produce almost all of their titles on VHS, the DVD has declared its dominance.

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“It’s still profitable for us to stay in the tape business,” says Wicked spokesman Daniel Metcalf. “We still get a lot of VHS orders, especially down south. But that time (when we stop producing VHS) is definitely coming.”

Porn has embraced DVD because it’s cheaper to duplicate and to produce and boasts more opportunities for value-added features.

Some of the most popular features on a porn DVD have nothing to do with sex. Fans clamor to see the “real” stars, so producers include on-set bloopers and behind-the-scenes footage.

“People like to see the stars with no makeup on as they spit out their bagel,” says Peter Warren, an associate editor for Adult Video News. His job description includes reviewing more than 70 DVDs each month.

The DVD’s position in the porn industry also has been strengthened by the rise of “gonzo” — films produced without the semblance of a plot. Freed from costly restraints like makeup and sets, a would-be porn producer can achieve semi-professional results with an HD camera and a DVD burner.

The result: Thousands of additional titles on the market, enough to satisfy even the most obscure fetishes.

However, the nature of the product means the skin industry has uses for the technology that might not occur to the producers of, say, “Cinderella 3.”

Wicked is preparing to release its first DVD-only interactive title, “The Perfect Stormy,” designed to compete in the bestselling “Virtual Sex With…” category initiated in 1999 by competitor Digital Playground.

The pic features Wicked contract starlet Stormy Daniels in her own home, with her performance shot to give a viewer the fantasy that he is the one with Stormy. For those who prefer a less direct approach, the DVD also includes an angle known as the voyeurcam.

Viewers also can set up their DVDs to play only the musical soundtrack or the dialogue, such as it may be.

“Porn is niche-marketed, disposable pop culture,” Warren says. “If you can think about it, you can do it.”

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