I rather doubt the "millions of Pounds" statement....It was a big business, but even adjusting for inflation, those "millions" would have to be over a LONG period of time for any one flick. For the same kind of reasons that our actual numbers here are nowhere as many as we like to think, the dollars dont stretch that far. These flicks made money from arcade type viewing....five minutes for a quarter or 20 pfennig or what ever time/ currency was required. Moreover, thst would not have been 24/7, but weekend nights and maybe Thursday. Other nights were dead.They depended on Naval and merchant crews, Army bases and the like, especially from places where it was illegal. Some locals would have been fans, but this is why porn AND redlight districts evolved and remain. It is a product that mostly sells to "others" in places where locals don't hang. It is profitable only because the markets are cornered. Tijuana is a good example. Old Tijuana is a genuine Mexican City with one of the best research Collections of pre-Columbian artifacts in the World. It is cultured, refined, and classically-built. New Tijuana is a tourista trap sans peer. The two main drags there are Avenidas Revolucion and Constitucion....they cross. Every shop along those roads is owned by the same fellow. Used to be General someone or other; quien sabe, today? In that framework money is made by the fistful, but it all works together as a monopoly industry. Any port city around the world may be set up similarly, but failing that, profits are not high, nor widespread and with the attitudes changing everywhere, it isnt getting more profitable. If a profiteer buys a single copy of a new Bodil flick, what stops him fro. making five thousand copies for his peepshows? He may make a buck, but the production house may not. Its not an easy industry. Thats why people like Bodil die broke. Why Andy Wolfs commit suicide...or a Dorothy Stratten gets murdered( not a porn star, but the same rules apply: be careful what you wish for).
