For niche adult-content producers like Extreme Associates, DVDs already are dinosaurs. "As of October-ish, we gave up all DVD distribution," owner Rob Black said. "We don't do one ounce of anything on DVD anymore, not even catalog [of existing movies] or comp[ilations]." When the packages already on retail and distribution shelves sell out, Extreme's product will be available only online.
For a small operation like his, it just makes sense, Black said. Extreme's expenses have plummeted with the migration to digital-only distribution; consequently, the company's return on investment has risen. "You don't need all the people," Black explained. "All you're doing is producing [content], and then it's up there on [the Web]. You don't need a fucking office; you don't need a building. You don't need artwork, authoring, sleeves, [brick-and-mortar] distributors, duplication, titling. ... You don't need any of that."
What one does need - Black readily admits it - is to learn a new language. Since feeling forced to abandon DVD distribution by rising costs and distributors who were cutting back on inventory or not interested in representing Extreme's prone-to-prosecution product (the company has survived multiple obscenity raps in recent years), Black has taught himself the art of webmastering. He maintains all of Extreme's pay sites and the company's affiliate program himself, he said. "Me and Lizzie [Borden, his wife] right now are how we first began when we were a mom-and-pop [operation] and we were just getting big," he said.
But he's found the new role gratifying in completely new ways: He likes the direct-from-consumers feedback via social-networking sites and has discovered his product remains in demand, despite shifting delivery mechanisms and tastes. "People still want our product," he said. "It's just a matter of how we deliver it. The people [who] bought our stuff are still there, and they can still get an Extreme DVD - they just have to burn it themselves." That's not difficult, he added, since HotMovies and AEBN offer Extreme's entire catalog as video on demand and through download-to-own services. (Extreme's new movies will be available exclusively at HotMovies, however.)
Acid Rain owner Mitchell Spinelli also has left DVDs behind, at least partly. He said he won't shoot any new product for Acid Rain, but he'll continue to release never-before-seen content, compilations and boxed sets of existing titles. What really excites him is his new partnership with XXXContentDirect to produce digital content under the label Grindhouse Porn. The new material - primarily in the reality niche - will be available only on websites for at least two or three months before it's made available as VOD or on disc. Like Black, Spinelli is confident the cost savings will boost a bottom line that saw its DVD-sales percentage fall 50-60 percent during the past year. "I think it's going to go really well," he said of the shift in distribution focus. "Acid Rain [content] did phenomenally well for XXXContentDirect, but gonzo's gone about as far as it can go and digital product is so much cheaper to produce. Plus, kids in their teens download everything. When they're in their 20s and 30s, there won't be a need for anything except downloads."
Still, Spinelli admits, "it would be silly to [completely] abandon DVD" at this point. Acid Rain has "close to 600 titles" in its catalog, and although the company's most recent titles aren't selling as well as just-released DVDs once did, "catalog product is doing well, probably because of deep discounts [that are a natural part of the product life cycle]," he said.
Although current plans are to release Grindhouse titles on DVD in the future if the market looks good, Spinelli is reserving a final decision until he sees how sales go in the digital realm. "Video put theaters out of business almost overnight," he recalled. "This will be a much slower thing."
It's also too early to tell how well Extreme's new distribution channel will perform in the long run, but Black is relieved at least he's managed to dislodge a huge weight from his shoulders. At 35, freedom is more important to him than money, he noted, and he's "100 percent happier with [his] new way of working. Only having to rely on one person is the greatest thing in the world. My future is entirely up to me." Black may not be getting rich, but he's making "enough to live, but not enough to have any ‘fuck you' money," he said. "Right now, I'm fuckin' surviving, but [I hope] it'll get me back to where I was in the '90s [when Extreme's then-new and exceptionally shocking content topped the sales charts].
"At least I'm not out sucking cock on Santa Monica Boulevard."
