Porn Parodies Once Were King, But Now the Genre Is a Tough Sell (YNOT)

Read the full article by Rhett Pardon at YNOT.com

LAS VEGAS — The arrival last month of Wicked Pictures’ latest porn lampoon, “Captain Marvel XXX: An Axel Braun Parody,” was eagerly anticipated by fans of Braun’s work. But those same fans, who seek out satire with their flesh, are seeing less and less of the adult film genre.

Simply put: The parody market, riding a viable wave for almost a decade, isn’t what it used to be.

Two of the top parody directors in the biz — Will Ryder and Braun — are finding the genre a tough sell, particularly because production money isn’t raining down on such titles and because so many of the takeoffs that mock some of Hollywood’s most iconic titles have already been done.

“The parody genre will always have sentimental appeal because of the familiarity factor, but nobody is buying anymore,” Ryder told YNOT. “People were nostalgic   about the TV shows of their youth, so it created quite a sensation for about a 10-year period to mix that with sex.

“Sadly, the porn audience, while bigger than ever today, is getting their content mostly for free so there is no longer an economic engine that provides a surefire return on investment to create new parodies,” said Ryder, who produced his first parody — “Not the Bradys XXX” — in 2008. “Plus, the audience has pretty much seen everything they wish to see get spoofed and the people who are interested in seeing porn mixed with their favorite shows is finite.

“Those who were or are still willing to purchase a parody DVD or a VOD have pretty much done so, and we are now off to whatever comes next, which today is camming.”

For Braun, the “Captain Marvel XXX” release will be his 60th porn parody production. The venerable blue-movie director admitted that he’s the last man standing in the genre because he gets “decent” budgets.