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How Big is the Porn Industry?
I’ve read that commercial sex in all its forms is the fourth-largest industry in the U.S. That includes videos, magazines, websites, topless bars, prostitution, phone sex, fetish services, etc. Do you know of any statistics to back this up?
C.H., Van Nuys, California
It’s fourth behind food, shelter and clothing. We’ve seen estimates of $10 billion, $11 billion, $13 billion, $14 billion and $20 billion, excluding prostitution. Because most adult businesses are privately held and don’t have to release financial data to stockholders, you’re left with extrapolations from sales. For example, the Video Software Dealers Association estimates that Americans spend $8.4 billion each year to rent videos and DVDs. It guesses that porn rentals make up three percent to five percent of that total, or $253 million to $422 million. A survey of adults-only stores by Adult Video News found they earn a total of $970 million annually from sales and rentals. A VSDA survey of 90 stores that carry mainstream and adult titles found that porn accounts for an average of 16 percent of their gross. Using that figure, AVN pegs the total hard-core video and DVD market at $4 billion, not including mail order. Forbes calls that number “wildly inflated” and points out that even if each of the 13,000 porn titles released annually sold 2,000 copies at $20 apiece—all generous assumptions—the total would be just $520 million. The magazine estimates the annual gross from adult movies, websites, pay-per-view and magazines at $2.6 billion to $3.9 billion. So, who knows? We’ll start saving our receipts.
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Mar 21, 2010
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