I have probably looked at an unhealthy amount of porn in my life and continue to do so.
I have also (non-seriously) thought about and researched the economics of the porn business....specifically the Labor side.
Let's start wit hthe ladies: Most female pornstars make any where from $500-$5000 a shoot, depending on how new they are to the business, their looks, the quality of the company they are shooting for, budget of production, etc. Virgins also get a bonus.
The girl making $500 is probably a crack whore whose shooting for the first time on some really shitty low budget online porn site, the girl making $2,000 will probably be well known (Katja Kassin) and be shooting for a big budget company like Vivid. It has also been rumored that Alexis Texas made the $5000 mark, only once reached by Jenna Jameson.
Girls are also paid der diem and get paid more to do super hardcore scenes like ass to mouth, gangbangs, etc. Depending on a girls' reputation and how many videos she shoots, a female pornstar can plausibly make any where from $50,000-$250,000 a year. That's not insane big money, but considering that most of these women are incredibly stupid, shallow, and psychologically/emotionally fucked up, have drug dependencies, and child dependencies, with no other life skills.......they are getting paid good money compared to working as a waitress, or in retail, or whatever they fuck they would otherwise do.
A great deal of women pornstars also work as expensive escorts on the side, so are basically just straight up prostitutes (which is another argument for another day, whether or not porn is not prostitution because it is filmed).
The average men in porn on the other hand don't get paid shit compared to the women, pretty much 1/3-1/2 of what the women are getting paid. An article I read that most guys in porn that get "work" regularly are making $20,000-40,000 a year (which ironically is the same range that the average male in America gets paid).
Basically 90% of male pornstars don't make shit, there are the odd famous ones like (Ron Jeremy), or dudes that are well known and crank out a shit ton of films (Lex Steele, Peter North), that make pretty decent money. Jeremy even cracked the $1 million mark.
Guys don't get into porn for the money, they're obviously in it for the sex. Is it despicable? Maybe....but considering that a lot of these guys are fucking the shit out of hot ass 9's and 10's, and getting paid for it (while most of us are paying for that "privilege"), it's understandable.
Also, I've heard that a lot of guys who do straight porn, are bi-sexual and do gay porn on the side because it pays way better. Transsexuals have also scored big bucks in the scene, and niche porn has been the big seller in today business thanks to two factors: a) there is ton of straight porn available for free on the internet thanks to pirating and b) the rich, degenerate, sick fucks who run our corporations, governments, and newspapers are the only ones who can afford to demand and fund this sick fucking shit in the first place.
Anyways, I'd never get into the porn thing as much as it looks like a dream come true for the male libido. There is a -EV component to the business: all the sleazy, fucked up people you'd encounter and deal with on a daily basis, that you would have to actually work with. Not to mention STD risks and the fact that that shit will stay with you till the day you die. No escaping a past of making porn films, and who knows how that could fuck up your life down the line.
Obviously most of these girls have severe problems. They are addicted to drugs. They have serious issues from being raped/molested/beaten. They have psychological problems like bi polar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and "I'm a crazy fucking bitch" disorder.
The more cynical side of me would say the working actors in the porn industry are just fucked up people: nothing but dirty filthy degenerates that are getting paid to do what they were destined to be: whores.
In a sense, they are fulfilling a calling, and a need, in society: sexual relief.
Nature has rewarded them for the only real value that they contribute to the world which they have:
To make a living sucking cock while getting fucked in the ass.
