Porn companies diversify as sex goes mainstream

Porn film revenues have been hit hard in recent years, largely due to free, readily-available online pornography, rampant piracy, and Measure B – Hollywood's new mandatory-condom-use law for adult film shoots. As part of a recent series on the porn business, CNBC reports that some adult entertainment companies have begun to profit handsomely by branching out into different industries.

Famously the founder of Hustler magazine, Larry Flynt now reportedly rakes in his biggest profits from his Hustler Casino chain. In addition, Hustler's Hollywood retail store on Sunset Boulevard – largely an apparel outlet, featuring its own popular clothing line and novelty items – does brisk business, with women comprising most of its customer base. Meanwhile, Flynt's company, LFP, has continued to expand its avenues of distribution within the porn industry; LFP recently bought the pay-per-view company New Frontier Media.

Vivid Entertainment founder Steven Hirsch has been dubbed the “voice” of the adult industry. In addition to being one of the dominant players in porn film production, Vivid is the company that initially introduced celebrity sex tapes (including Kim Kardashian Superstar, Pamela Anderson & Tommy Lee: Hardcore & Uncensored, and the Jimi Hendrix sex tape) to the masses. But Vivid has made pains to expand its operations into varied commercial ventures, including its own lines of products such as vodka, skateboards, and comic books.

In addition to titillating the masses with risque content, porn company Pink Visual has expanded into the tech world, producing an anti-piracy digital product that's recently been picked up by media, entertainment, and computer corporations. Allison Vivas, Pink Visual president and author of the forthcoming book Making Peace With Porn, opines that piracy impacted the adult entertainment business even more than it cut into music industry revenue. "For example,” says Vivas, “if you do a search for a non-piracy word like 'porn,' it's basically all piracy sites that show up. That doesn't happen if you search for music or an artist's name."

And adult film production studios have found another way to supplement their bottom line: by gearing and marketing their products to women. Although porn has traditionally catered to men, the popular success of the 2012 erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" served as yet another indication that, yes, women enjoy sex.

But instead of focusing on the more hardcore sex acts and other extreme aspects of porn geared toward males, film companies like New Sensations and Wicked Pictures have spent the past few years creating an inventory of movies more palatable to women and couples. Unlike traditional adult films, female-oriented porn movies tend to have plots. CNBC remarks: “Think of them as movies that might air on Lifetime – only when the sex scenes start, the camera doesn't pan away.”

Since tapping into these neglected markets, production companies have seen their profits soar. "When it comes to something like the couples market, the revenue that can be generated with the right product is considerably more than traditional DVDs," said New Sensations president Scott Taylor.

However, industry experts note that the online market for female-oriented porn has yet to be fully exploited. Says Vivas: "On the Internet, there has been a lot of higher gloss and glamour productions being done, but they're still marketed to men."