Posted on 11/19/2001 12:03:40 AM PST by StoneColdGOP
No Hard Times For Adult Film Biz
Terrorist attacks, war in Afghanistan and a faltering economy are not having an effect on one of the San Fernando Valley's most robust industries: adult videos. Some of the area's top manufacturers of explicit films and DVDs said this week that their orders are up by as much as 20 percent since September 11, while smaller companies and video stores said business has remained steady.
"Our industry is, for the most part, recession-proof," said Jim Monroe, vice president of Van Nuys-based Vivid Video, one of the world's largest producers of explicit adult entertainment. "When times are good people still want to stay home and watch the movies and when times aren't so good, people tend to cuddle up at home even a little bit more."
The Valley has long been home to the booming adult film industry, which generated more than $4 billion in sales and rentals last year nationwide, according to Adult Video News, the industry's main trade paper. Although 2001 sales figures will not be available until December, Adult Video News Editor in Chief Mike Ramone said he doesn't expect any kind of drop in business with more than 11,000 new hard-core titles being released annually.
"I have heard from retailers that immediately after the attack, business went down with everyone staying home glued to the tube," Ramone said. "But then shortly thereafter, it went through the ceiling. I suppose people still need their distractions even in wartime."
Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County, said the adult film industry has historically weathered hard economic times. "If they had reported as being down, it would be a big surprise," Kyser said. "It's sort of the industry that dare not speak its name but it's one of the strong growth areas. People may not approve but, obviously, there is a demand. It seems to be a very, very solid industry."
According to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., adult films account for approximately 5 percent to 10 percent of filming permits filed in Los Angeles County. The industry is able to weather tough economic times on the production side because they have small budgets, use small crews and minimal sets. And the financial commitment from the consumer is also minimal. "In a slowing economy, people might not take vacations or buy cars but they still want to go to movies, watch television or rent videos," said Morrie Goldman, vice president of the EIDC.
Monroe said the astonishing rise in popularity of DVDs has added handsomely to Vivid Video's bottom line and to the adult film industry's health overall. "We have seen a continual increase on DVDs the last 12-15 months and we are taking advantage of the technology," Monroe said. "We don't have a [Martin] Scorsese or [Francis Ford] Coppola to add director's comments but the more interactive we make our titles, the better."
Confident of continued strong demand, Canoga Park-based Wicked Pictures has no plans to scale back on the 48 new DVDs and VHS films it produces each year and sells to distributors. "Obviously, September 11 affected everyone to some degree and all anyone was concerned about was watching the news every night to see what was going on," said Wicked Pictures President Steve Orenstein. "Then it started changing when people were looking for anything but the news. Right now, business is good again and going as usual."
The president of a Van Nuys-based printing company that makes boxes for DVDs and videos for more than 200 porn companies said the only concession he has had to make to national events is to design machine-sealed mailing envelopes because of anxiety over the anthrax scare. "With Christmas season coming up, we have seen orders for DVD boxes go way up and we are expecting a very busy Christmas season," he said. "There had already been an increase in home entertainment but now people are really seeking the security of being entertained at home."
Something to be said for "staying power" alongside "hard times".
I support your right to assemble and protest whatever you fancy.
Surely, you allow us the right to participate in the process of government in our great land whereby we seek representation in favor of the higher virtues, according to the dictates of conscience, and work to turn our land from becoming an amoral playground into a society where graphic sexual material isn't as available as, say cigarettes?
It is your right to seek whatever political representation you wish. But I don't see where the Constitution delegates unto government the function of defining and imposing morality. Your cigarette analogy is very telling; you seem to think that is cigarettes cause more damage than good, that the government has the power to prohibit it. I disagree. The sole function of government in a free society is the preservation of individual rights. By smoking a cigarette, a person violates no one elses rights. Whether or not is it bad for them is irrelevant.
By the goodness/badness criteria you propose, the government could justify banning Big Macs, Hagen-Daaz ice cream, fast cars, and Rag-time music. If this is the sort of government you want, you are not a conservative; you are a control freak.
For availability will encourage use (I believe conservatives call this 'supply side economics'), and then -- surely you see the statistical reality -- those who are apt to be adversely affected will have greater opportunity to be so, and therefore become menaces to society. In this way, it is scientifically demonstrable that pornography is harmful to society -- insofar as those who are given to sexual aggression are often, and very likely always, consumers of pornography. [emphasis added]
Correleation isn't cause. Just because sexual aggressors read porn doesn't mean that porn CAUSES sexual aggression.
(Cigarettes as an analogy, cause lung cancer. If you smoke, you up the odds. Not everyone who smokes will develop lung cancer. The risks of smoking, in a real, physical sense, outweigh any benefit (if there is one) according to current medical understanding).
And if you think that this somehow justifies the government restricting the availability of cigarettes then your really are a tobacco Nazi and a control freak. The constitution doesn't delegate the authority to government to protect us from ourselves. BTW, I find cigarettes disgusting, but I will fight for the right of smokers to smoke as a matter of principle.
Your willingness to use coercive governmental power to induce the citizens to conform to what YOU think is best for them is profoundly disturbing. You and your ilk represent a far greater menace to freedom of Americans than anyone staring at a picture of naked people frolicking EVER will.
Porn is sin. Plain and simple. I've seen my share of it. That should at least entitle me to an opinion. - #138
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Yep, you said it CD, and we can all agree, you shouldn't be playing here.
At #142 you are partially right, but again miss the constitutional point on porno.
--- The USSC agrees with you! Your community standards can 'regulate' public porn to the degree where it is non-existent for all practical purposes. -- BUT, - you can't criminalize it, or its private possession.
Why not try to understand? -- this concept is not beyond a simple mind.
There's nothing to brag about........it's pretty much a normal part of life for many people---"good" and "bad" people alike.
I pity women who aspire to be sluts -- what a waste.
Are you saying women who watch pornographic videos and the sort are sluts?
Ah, yes. Just like the availability of guns creates mass muderers right, darling? Yes, the majority of those who choose guns as a weapon of murder, murder with guns. Those who choose knives as a weapon of murder, murder with knives. Your logic is profound--really. You might as well say that human beings eating meat means we're going to become cannibals and sick murderers due to our love of flesh consumption.
He can't put up a link to the article, because if you're not a subscriber to Mystique, instead of taking you to the article, it takes you to a page with a few nekkid ladies asking you to sign up... he had a post pulled once because of that =) and I was traumatized by it =)
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Friend, that is a very twisted way to look at representative government.
You just reversed the principle behind a constitutional republic. -- Very twisted. What you want, apparently, is a dictatorship of the voting public, -- one where certain activities are forbidden -- unless they are approved by a 'moral' majority .
What I want is just the opposite of what you claim I want, and I would appreciate it if you would stop misrepresenting my position.
I oppose dictatorships of all kinds.
I oppose government to forbid any point of view.
More specifically, I oppose government acting as a nanny censor for what Americans are permitted to read and view in the privacy of their own homes, and to by and sell through willing businesses.
It is apparently YOU who seeks to impose, through the power of government, restrictions on what people can read and view; to "forbid the point of view" of those who choose to enjoy prose and images of naked adults frolicking.
I don't seek to violate anyones rights through the power of government. How you could think otherwise, based on what I wrote, is as astounding as your point of view that government should be able to ban cigarettes and smut because YOU think it is bad for us.
Because when you seek to ban reading and smoking (tobacco) materials because "it's good for us," your are infringing upon the individual right to choose a behavior that interferes with NO ONE else's rights. It is a form of majoritarian tyranny.
.... Are you sure it's not you who are forcing your morality on me?
Most assuridly no. No one is trying to force you, or your children, or anybody who is morally opposed to smut to buy it or view it against your will.
[snip]
This man did not live and die in this land so that men could spend their lives jerking off.
Nor did Lincoln live and die so that you can dictate to others what they do with their hands in the privacy of their own homes.
A Lady friend of mine once told me "If it floats, flys or F****, rent it."
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