This article is from the Sex Movies FAQ, by director@gti.net (The Director) with numerous contributions by others.
Jerry Butler in his book "Raw Talent" discussed the inequity of pay
for porn actors versus actresses. He claimed that actresses made
in the $1000-1500 range as their day rate, which the male actors
made about a third of that, $300-500 a day. Of course,
considerations for number of scenes and star power were made for
the women. Rumors had Savannah making $10,000 per film and Seka
allegedly wants $100,000 to do another film. Neither of these
figures have been verified.
Frontline's 198? documentary of the Shauna Grant suicide, "Death of
a Porn Queen" mentions that actresses got as much as $1,000 a day
for making videos.
Brandy Alexandre says
Video performers are only paid the day they shoot the video. There
are no royalties for sales or rentals, and there are no extra
payments when footage is used in another feature like compilations
of facial shots, or "Best of..." titles.
Most movies are shot in a single day. Most of the time they are
shot in twos - two movies in two days - to cut down on equipment
rental costs. The men are paid between $250 and $400 a day and
women are paid $300 to $700 a day. The variations depend on what is
called for in the individual scenes and how many scenes you will be
doing that day.
Girls make much more money on the road dancing. A great number of
actresses today are doing movies just to enhance their
marketability as strippers. I do not have plans to go on any dance
tours. I wish I could just come to your area and sign autographs at
a book store or do those "chat booth" things. Those are a lot of
fun. :)
It's probably safe to say that there is no set pay scale and you get
what you negotiate.
Tim Evanson passes this along:
In gay porn, actors usually make more money than their male hetero
porn counter parts. According to statements made by gay porn stars
in Dave Kinnick's SORRY I ASKED, the average gay porn star makes
about $500-800 per film, whether it's one scene or several. Some
gay porn stars, such as Joey Stefano and Ryan Idol and Jeff
Stryker, have claimed to make up to $1,500 per picture due to their
star drawing power.
Newcomer gay porn star Dave York says that salaries for newbies to
gay porn now run around $1,000 per picture, and the Adam Film World
Gay Video 1995 Directory says that Ryan Idol commands upwards of
$10,000 per movie now.]
 
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