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Okay... A lot of you seem to ask this question a lot recently, so here is a rough guide to what it costs to produce a movie:

Female models cost between ?200 - ?400 per scene, depending on what the scene involves (Anal, DP, etc)
Male models cost between ?150 - ?250 per scene.
locations cost between ?100 - ?300 per day depending on who you know and the type of location you want to use.
On top of that you may need a make up artist (?100-?200), you normally have to feed the performers, Accommodate them, and pay travel expenses, again depending on the production.
Then you also have to take into account the cost of your equipment, which has to be upgraded on a regular basis, and the cost of tapes and film.

So this all boils down to costing around ?700 - ?1000 per scene. Then you multiply by five scenes and you have your content for a volume. Then it has to be edited, and again the equipment and software has to be upgraded on a regular basis.

So the final figure for a volume is between ?3500 - ?5000+
This is only a rough guide and I'm sure some producers spend a shit load more on their products.

And I haven't even taken into consideration the 'X' factor...i.e. all the things that can go wrong and cost you money, like performers haveing a 'bad hair' day, personality clashes, people turning up late or not turning up at all, etc etc.


Then we come down to the real shit. Selling the finished product. Now if you happen to have a deal with a big production house then great, but the bottom line is that the lable, distributor and retailer all have to make a profit.

I've been told that if you want to sell R18 videos through a certain well known sex shop chain, they only pay ?2 per unit!
That's after you've edited it, duplicated it, packaged it and paid the BBFC for a certificate!

So to recap, the poor bastards who make movies in this country don't make ?25 -?30 per copy, they probably only get around ?5 if their lucky.

The state of the industry today is one of the reasons I do other work outside the industry.
The pirates are slowly killing it off and judging by the comments posted by a lot of people who use this forum, nobody really gives a shit!


John Mason

And the certain well known chain sells the films in question for ?30+

Lots of us DO give a shit, John.........like overfishing, it unfortunately seems humans will always put immediate self-interest before long-term considerations.
Thanks for the breakdown, about what I'd guessed......
BTW, does insurance enter into the equations? (I mean Public Liability or something, not against Outrageous Fortune).

with regards to the male performer, how is the pay for them affected if they cum too soon(eg. Mark B.Door raiders) or can't cum at all?

You ruined this analysis/rant in the last 2 sentences.
'The pirates are slowly killing it off'

How many years will it take to kill all of these movies? In about 2 years time we should have really cheap recordable dvd. What happens in america compared to uk? Is the competition from america not also 'killing it off'? Shouldn't we stop american and other european films entering the UK?

'nobody really gives a shit'
This forum isn't an arm of the police is it? Trading standards I think is the body that deals with copyright issues.

It seems to be a split between punter and producer (the middleman -supplier(sexshop) as always getting the better deal)

The piracy wouldn't be such a problem if the producers were working with a larger margin of profit. After all, piracy hasn't harmed European or American porn.

I'm not defending piracy against the assertion that it's wrong - I agree entirely. But what's really damaging the UK porn industry is the R18/licensed sex shop system which tightly restricts entry into the retail side of the porn industry. The result is that those lucky few who do control the sex shops have complete market power. Customers have little alternative but to buy from them and producers little choice but to sell to/through them. They are therefore able to buy cheapo and sell at a king's ransom in the knowledge that nobody can set up next door and compete with them.

It's the same effect as supermarkets have on the farming industry - retailers are powerful, producers are weak, so the latter's margins are squeezed while the former grow fat.

If distribution of porn was opened up to fair competition, (which may gradually happen anyway, as Britain grows to trust the internet) then producers would be able to ask a fairer price for their work.

I doubt that UK porn will ever be a money-spinner in the way the US industry is. You only have to read the snide reviews at places like from US correspondents to realise that America just doesn't understand UK porn. Where are UK producers to seek the economies of scale which make serious money, if not the US? Well, Europe is a bigger potential market for our kind of smut, but like the US it already has a huge porn industry which is difficult for the UK players to 'penetrate' (ahem).

Long term I think the market will segment - Europe has little appetite for American porn now that there is a superior alternative, and America regards European porn as little more than an amusing sideshow. The Brits will be left in the middle playing third fiddle.

nothing wrong with a bit of fiddle!

re. the future of the uk industry - it all comes down to distribution. as an optimist, i believe in the not too distant future, we shall find ourselves living in the best of all possible worlds:

a world in which the discriminatory nature of current mail order restrictions (which harm the competitiveness of indigenous producers) are repealed, thus affording everyone equal access to the finest h/c blighty has to offer.

a world in which obtaining a license to vend r18 material will be a matter of course, with such establishments becoming as traditional a sight on the village high street, as the ubiquitous chinese takeaway.

a world in which h/c will be legally beamed into every home in the country, via encrypted satellite on astra and eutelsat. whether people watch it or not, they will expect the choice to be of their own making and not that of an overweening state.

when all of this comes to pass (and it will my friends, it will) the industry will thrive in a manner undreamt of in our present straitened circumstances.

sales will flourish, margins will grow, increased investment will follow, productions standards will rise, sales will grow further, new markets will open up, etc, etc...

until one day, we find ourselves citizens of a fully fledged pornocracy and everyone walks around with a smile on their face, the whole day long.

Rimbaud, could it be possible you don't know what the hell you are talking about when you write...

"After all, piracy hasn't harmed European or American porn"

Of course it hasn't harmed them because the U.S porn industry has the backing of the F.B.I to persue criminal acts and Europe, well...Try pirating some of the big companies and you are looking at acts being settled privately out of court and in a back alley- If you catch my drift.

and...

...You only have to read the snide reviews at places like from US correspondents to realise that America just doesn't understand UK porn.

This is true to an extent but I've always found that critics are frustrated film makers in general. It's easy to trash someones work on the basis of something you don't like personally, but critics don't really amount to much on a world scale. Unless a specific movie is truly bad and everyone says it is shite of course.

For instance, Ben had a knock back from some American critic a while back, I seriously doubt that mans opinions has dented Bens video sales. As for the general peoples comments, that's all subjective. Everyones a critic. For everyone that hates a movie, there's another who loves it. American companies market their product via grab you by the throat and throttle you type hard sell to appeal to their consumers.

Ie: "See (insert producer/ performer) stretching the assholes wide of these filthy whores as they guzzle choads of piping hot man chunks"- when you buy the tape it's a load of C-grade standard shot by the numbers porn with a puff of powder cum shot.

In short, American companies will buy what they consider decent British porn because British girls are popular because of several factors: Looks, accents, locations etc. Simply put, because it is different but familiar to the stuff Americans turn out everyday. Another thing american companies live by is the box cover selling the film. How many times have you seen a blinding box cover that made you buy the film, only to find it wasn't anything to do with the the film?

Incidentally, did you know that amateur porn steam rollers everything else on a collective level? It just doesn't get the recognition simply because it is cheap to produce. So, I'm not so sure about the good quality porn being the issue. Theres a lot more people out there that prefer the warts and all reality that producers from this country provide. Only the bourgois amongst them look down their noses at British porn because of this. Either way you look at it- Pussy vids make big bucks

A lovely dream, I admit, but not likely........BTW, some of the stuff I've had from Chinese takeaways DESERVES an R18.