The 5 Highest Paid Pornstars
Posted on September 28th, 2007 by Listmaker
Ron Jeremy, The Hedgehog himself, has commented a number of times that the average male pornstar gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he’s new. There’s even talk that some men do it for free, which perfectly makes sense. Women, on the other hand, can make $100,000 to $250,000 at the end of the year. That’s pretty impressive, but there are a handful of porn performers who get more bucks for their bang (sorry, couldn’t help it) than everybody else. And not all of them are from the U.S.
1. Jenna Jameson
This one’s a no-brainer. Jenna, billed as the world’s most famous pornstar, is a multi-millionaire. She’s retired from performing, so you can forget about the fees she gets per scene. Not that she still needs to do them anyway. ClubJenna, the porn company she founded with her ex-husband Jay Grdina, had estimated revenues of $30 million, with profits of approximately half that, in 2005. Playboy has since acquired the company she founded for an undisclosed sum, which I can only guess would be a rather neat sum.
2. Tera Patrick
“When I got into the industry, I made millions for everyone else. Now I make them for myself”, says Tera Patrick. And that wasn’t an empty boast. Far from it. This former nurse is president, owner and lead star of Teravision, a $30 million-plus company that produces 15 porn titles every year, selling more than 30,000 copies each. Sure beats having to change patients’ bedpans for a job.
3. Maria Takagi
This AV Idol is Japan’s highest paid porn starlet. Takagi, a former teen pop singer, signed a deal with a Japanese porn company called Max A worth 300 million yen—roughly $2.6 million dollars. The contract, however, is for 30 films. Nevertheless, earning an average of more than $86,000 dollars per film isn’t bad. Not bad at all.
4. Houston
Famous for having sex non-stop with 620 men, this pornstar was said to have earned over $1 million in 1999, the same year she did that record-breaking gangbang. So I guess that roughly translates to $1612 per guy. Just kidding. On top of her video performances, she was earning $20,000 a week from strip club appearances. She also earned an estimated $10,000 for selling her labia (!), which was apparently sliced away in a vaginoplasty procedure, in an online auction. Ew.
5. Hillary Scott
This cute pornstar once appeared on the Howard Stern radio show and declared her $1 million contract with SexZ Pictures as “the largest porn contract in history”. The deal, however, is for four years, which means she’ll pull in just an average of $250,000 a year. Not exactly the stuff of lifestyles of the rich and famous, but being guaranteed of such an income for the next four years, that is quite something for a relatively new porn sensation.
