It’s true on the gay side of the fence too, and many gay porn stars also escort on the side (as I imagine do many straight ones).
It’s worth noting that there are also situations in which women do not get paid on a per-sex-act basis, but have long-term contracts that pay good money and that specify a certain number of scenes or movies, as well as personal appearances etc., that they must do in return.
Perhaps the best known company to go this route is Vivid, and apparently there is quite a lot of prestige and money attached to becoming a Vivid contract girl. A few of those inside-the-porn-industry documentaries that appear on cable have looked at the quest to become a Vivid girl, and the enthusiasm with which some porn stars pursue the contract.
ETA: I think that Private and some of the other prestige Euro brands also use contracts for some of their stars.
Even if a porn star gets paid a lot for a single video, they may only make 10 or 15 videos a year, if that. That rate doesn’t add up to much when it’s spread so thin.
Oh, is that why dancing pays much better? Because they do that several nights a week, as opposed to a handful of times a year?
Something else to consider. Many of these scenes will be used in multiple videos. Since a lot of videos these days lack narrative and are just spliced together pieces of action, you can take a scene from one film and use it in many, many others. For example, 2 guys and girl in a prison scene. You use this scene in the main video you shot the scene for. If one of the actors is a star, you can also use the scene with other scenes of the same star to make a special star video. Since race is a fetish in porn, if any actors are of different races you could use the video in you companies Asian/black/white/whatever porn videos. With a bit of editing you could also use just parts of the scene in other videos etc…
So while you might pay someone 10K for a 30-minute shot, if you use the scene in 5 movies and 3 websites it becomes extremely economical.
I remember with an interview with a porn start she was saying they only get paid for the scenes that actually get used. And then another porn star came into the interview and was saying how you can spend a hole day filming and do a few scenes then at the end of the day the they only end up using one scene or part of a scnee and thats what you get paid for.
Bolding mine.
A hole day? Isn’t that every day on a porn set?