Hey Mike,
I read with interest your article about piracy and Jimmy D’s about the state of the industry and have to say that I heartily agree with both! I believe my background was a little different coming into this industry as I had been a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and owned my own mainstream talent agency. I also have a law degree and an MBA. I am not a pornographer, but rather a businessman. I first came into the industry to run Metro Interactive with Joey Wilson of 3rd Degree. After working with Kenny Guarino for 9 months we both decided to pass and Private then hired me to be their President of North American operations which I did until they shut down their North American operation and went to Pure Play for distribution. I then started Black Widow Productions with the intent of being the best, honest distributor in the industry. Distribution was my background so I thought it would be easy. Well, it was in the beginning when we were getting 2,000 – 3,000 pieces out the first week on new releases and were selling the GGG line at $14.95 ea with no discount! That lasted for about one year and we grew nice and paid everyone on time. Then two things hit…new releases dropped to around 1,000 – 1,500 pieces and the price began creeping down. Then also the WD’s and internet distributors began stretching out their payments…checks started to bounce and my cash flow started sucking…but I did have a ton of inventory that I couldn’t sell for what I was into it. I finally reached the point early last year that it was time to get out of DVD’s and focus on the talent agency. That lasted a few months and after getting burned by talent and shooters I decided it was time to just chuck it all and I sold Black Widow Productions for the inventory at a price of $.25 per DVD and the talent agency I basically just gave to Goldstar. I currently hold around $175,000 in bad debts from retailers and distributors that I have little chance of recovering.
Now I am retired in Las Vegas, my blood pressure has gone down 20 points, I travel to SCUBA dive every month or so (just got back from Belize) and life is great after porn! I did go to the AVN show since I do live here and got to visit with many old friends. I am also doing some consulting work for Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel here who is looking for some porn actresses to work at the ranch doing legal escorting! I really do not know how anyone can make money on porn today…we all know the economics…find some dentist or lawyer who will front $20,000 for a movie and then we make it for $10,000 and keep the difference…those days are going away because there is just no avenue to generate a semblance of a profit to sell them on. I wish all of you guys still slugging away the best of luck…I will just sit on the sidelines and read about you!
Cheers,
Ric
