This is something I’ve wondered quite a bit (especially as I nearly ended up being in a film at one point ). How much, roughly, could someone doing a porn scene expect to make? Could make a living as a porn star?
I’ve heard it varies quite a lot between the gay and straight sectors in that gay porn pays a lot better and can therefore attract “gay for pay” guys who are willing to think of England for the money. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
So, any people in the business or with knowledge of production of porn who could enlighten me?
Louis Theroux did one of his “Weird Weekends” with porn stars, and one of his “subjects” was a straight guy who did gay porn because he couldn’t get work on straight porn.
I don’t know about guys. Girls make around $300 for blowjobs, $800 for intercourse, $1100 for anal, $1500 for DP. They can generally shoot a scene every day if they like, although the price might go a bit down. Conversely, very pretty girls who don’t work so much will make more.
I watched MTV’s “Real Life” last night, which was about 3 folks who work in the “adult entertainment” business.
One of them was a straight guy who makes gay porn.
He said on the show that a straight male if he can even get in the business makes about 750 for a straight scene, whereas a guy that does gay porn can get between 5000-10000 a scene.
He says he takes an ED pill, and thinks of the money. Of course he also said a few times “I get paid to have sex. It’s not a bad job.”
Huh. I’d always heard male gay porn stars were paid much lower than straight or lesbian stars. And despite what they say, there is no such thing as gay for pay- once you have a cock in your mouth or ass willingly, you’re at the very least bi.
The market for gay male porn is so much smaller, I can’t imgine anyone getting 5-10K for a scene, even though the pool of willing guys is smaller, its not that hard to find gay men. He’s probably a guy who says he’s straight who doesn’t want to admit he’s getting spooge on his face for 500 bucks.
I don’t know about the ratios between willing participants for gay and straight and demand for each, and I can’t do a search now from work - I was referring to gay porn being overwhlemingly less in demand than straight.
On one of those HBO porn documentary shows (pornucopia?), I remember something like 300-500 for a guy to do a straight scene, but up to 10 times that for a gay scene. Other things I remember are the claim that 25-50 percent of gay male porn stars are straight, and women recieve less for lesbian scenes than sex with a man.
I remember they interviewed one of these gay for pay guys with his wife… she was saying how she’d give him advice on giving blowjobs, and she’d often be there watching and maybe flashing him or something while he was filming.
Anecdotally, from conversations I’ve had with the occasional gay-for-pay performer, the ratio of 10-1 for gay vs straight sex for men is accurate. Men aren’t the focus of straight porn and so are paid less. One guy I’ve talked to (Ryan Idol) was a superstar in the gay porn world. His stardom was such that he was able, in addition to his regular fee, negotiate higher payments for specific sex acts. His films were promoted by noting it was the first time he gave oral on-camera, first time he was rimmed, first time he rimmed someone else and so on. And his partners in these various first-time-ever scenes piggybacked off his fame to become more popular themselves and command higher paydays. Rumors ran rampant that in his last film he was going to bottom for the first time but sadly it never happened.
I recall an article from about a decade ago with Ryan Idol and it mentioned a movie that he made $10,000 for. It was a huge deal for someone to be paid that much, that figure was talked about like it was completely unheard of to make that for one film. (Or maybe it was Jeff Stryker…one of the two)
No, it was Idol, and I think the film was “Idol Country” (first time he rimmed on-camera IIRC). He was supposed to bottom for “Idol in the Sky” which was his last adult film but, er, backed out of it.
I read a while ago that for female porn stars the REAL money is not in the porn films, but in stage and pole etc. dancing at higher end strip clubs, and the porn career (if they are popular) gets them in the door as a headliner for those clubs.
That stripping/dancing money is far more than they make for the porn videos.
Most gay men aren’t supporting a family (for obvious reasons), if they have a long term partner and they both work, then they are the uber DINK (double income, no kids) consumers with lots of cash ready to spend. And the gay men I’m friends with are extremely open about sex and – even if they are monogamous now – most went through extremely promiscuous periods when they first hit the gay scene.
And all those facts point to guys who spend more on porn than many straight guys do.
No cites, just anecdotal, but pretty consistent amongst the gay people I know. (At least the ones I’m friends with enough that they’ll speak candidly about their lifestyle with me.)
Take that for what it’s worth. shrug
). How much, roughly, could someone doing a porn scene expect to make? Could make a living as a porn star?
- I was referring to gay porn being overwhlemingly less in demand than straight.