After more than two decades in sales, Bonnie Kail was looking for a new challenge.
She found it when she joined Wicked Pictures last fall.
“I’ve been working for gonzo companies for a long time and when I got to Wicked, I knew this was going to be fun,” she said.
With the support of Wicked president Steve Orenstein and an already strong reputation in the industry, Kail went about the job of pushing the company’s latest releases in an already crowded market.
Six months later, Kail has one blockbuster movie under her belt as head of sales and is expecting more of the same as more of Wicked’s new features roll out. Thanks to Curse Eternal, whichrolled out on March 8, Wicked had a major hit.
“As soon as I saw the rough cut of the movie, I knew this was going to be big,” Kail said of the movie, featuring Jessica Drake as a woman pursued by an evil Egyptian mummy.
With 10,000 units out the door and the thousands more that immediately followed it, Curse Eternal was a bonafide hit and then some.
“As sales manager, this is my first hit, so it’s exciting,” she said. “It wasn’t a huge campaign. But we did t-shirt giveaways, press releases and having a great review in AVN ahead of time really helped.”
Featuring high-end sets, an inventive plot along with nine hardcore sex scenes, including double penetrations, anal and blowjob scenes, the movie has been Wicked’s biggest movie so far this year.
“A lot of that also has to do with the sales department,” said Roy Karch, president of Chatsworth-based Empire Video Distributors.
“If their top person in sales comes out and says that this is a big movie coming out and that you better get a big order, you take more. And that’s what Bonnie does. When she says that, you know she’s usually right.”
Howard Levine, Vivid’s head of sales, said he’s not surprised by Kail’s success.
“People take Bonnie’s calls. When you have a relationship with somebody, instead of putting them on hold or ignoring them, they’ll pick up and talk to her,” he said.
A 24-year industry veteran, Kail came to Wicked from gonzo production house, Devil’s Film after working at a number of companies, including Platinum X and Caballero.
But moving from handling wall-to-wall sex titles to high-end, big-budget features at Wicked was a change she gladly made.
“This is the ideal situation after being in business for 24 years,” she said. “I finally feel that I landed in the pinnacle of the business.”
As she readies to roll out a slew of new features, Kail is again excited about the company’s new three-pack release, set for May 31. It features Curse Eternal and two of the company’s biggest movies, Conquest, featuring Jenna Jameson; and Space Nuts, starring Stormy Daniels.
“It’s pretty awesome that we’re putting our brand new blockbuster in there, but we want to give our customers more value for their money,” she said.
But as the three-pack readies to roll out, Kail is already expecting big numbers from The Visitors, starring Keri Sable, who makes her final adult film performance in this sci-fi-themed release, set for June 28.
“It’s a big movie that has the ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ type of feel with just amazing special effects and performances,” she said.
“I expect the same kind of business from that that Curse is doing.”
But before then, Wicked is rolling out starring vehicles for its new contract stars, Carmen Hart and Kirsten Price. They are Rendezvous, featuring Hart,and Country Style, with Price,both set for release on April 26.
“They are both so adorable and so enthusiastic about their jobs and they can act,” she said.
Besides features, the company is also pushing forward with its 16-hour and four-hour compilation releases that ensure a steady stream of sales for the company.
“We have a good combination of great features and great compilations,” she said.
Photo by Bonnie LeBlanc.
