Page 56 - AVN May 2018

FEATURE | By Dan Miller
FEATURE |
STORMY SURGE
Daniels/Trump scandal ignites retail sales
Wicked Pictures indicated there has been a
larger spike in interest for the movies in which
Stormy has performed compared with the ones
she wrote and directed and stayed behind the
camera.
“It would be impossible to see her in the news
this much and not see an increase,” Wicked said
in a statement. “Since Stormy was under contract
with Wicked for nearly 15 years—from virtually
the beginning of her career up until the end of
January 2018—there is no other legal Stormy
Daniels adult content on the market from that
time period. Consumers are naturally turning to
the Wicked brand to see her work.”
According to Wicked, Stormy’s most popular
Wicked movies are newer titles such as Unbridled,
Vendetta, Sexbots and Wanted (an Adam & Eve
co-production), along with classics such as Space
Nuts, Camp Cuddly Pines Power Tool Massacre and
Operation: Desert Stormy.
While Wicked has been measured in
its Stormy promotion given the tone of
the controversy, the studio did conduct a
Twitter sweepstakes on the night of the 60
Minutes interview using the trending hashtag
#StormyDanielsDay; the winner received a prize
package for answering a trivia question about
the 2004 movie Cargo, which was written by and
starred Stormy and was directed by Jonathan
Morgan.
The winning Twitter user, @masterbearjedi,
landed the new “The Stormy Years” Six-Film Box
Set that includes Divorcees, Last Night, Operation
Tropical Stormy, The Predator, Taken and more.
“While there was a social media promotion
to reward longtime fans of Stormy’s Wicked
product, the company isn’t capitalizing on
the reasons she is in the news right now,” the
company said. “For this and other reasons,
Wicked hasn’t inserted itself into the news
stories. Of course, the company does have 175
Stormy Daniels scenes, and packages have been
put together for both our DVD and broadcast
customers.”
Stormy Trumps All, a four-hour compilation of
her top Wicked scenes, hit the streets in mid-
February. The box cover features Stormy sitting
on what looks like the desk of the Oval Office.
Mike Kennedy of HotMovies.com said his
VOD site began seeing a bump in January
when the news of the $130K payout created
international intrigue.
“We definitely saw sales of a few of her titles
increase, in particular, Stormy Daniels’ Girls Night
and Wanted went into the top 10 performing
titles for Wicked Pictures when they previously
had not even been in the top 50,” Kennedy told
AVN. “In January 2018, 10 of the top 25 movies
directed by or starring Stormy Daniels were top
sellers for Wicked. In December 2017, only two
of the top 25 top-selling movies from Wicked
featured Stormy as a performer or director.”
The number of searches for Stormy also has
seen dramatic jumps at HotMovies.
The retail climate has been Stormy since January. Photo courtesy Digital Playground
adult retailers say the Stormy Daniels business has
Whether online or in brick-and-mortar stores, many
never been better.
Since the Wall Street Journal reported the AVN
Hall of Fame performer/director received $130,000 in hush
money and signed an NDA before the 2016 election to stay
quiet about an alleged affair in 2006 with President Trump,
Stormy has not only become a household name, but arguably
the most famous porn star in the world.
Fueled by a feeding frenzy of media attention that intensified
on the heels of her interview with Anderson Cooper for 60
Minutes on March 25, sales of Stormy’s sex scenes and movies
continue to climb, according to several industry insiders.
“Stormy Daniels is currently our No. 1 most popular star, so
her sales have been soaring for the past few weeks,” said Colin
Allerton, vice president of AdultEmpire.com, one of the leading
online retailers in adult. “Lots of customers have been searching
for her work, so she’s often been featured on the homepage, in
the blog, or in marketing emails.
“Her current most popular movie is Stormy Trumps All,
followed by her western feature Wanted.”
Stormy spent almost her entire career under exclusive
contract with Wicked Pictures, the high-end feature studio
where she wrote, directed and starred in dozens of critically
acclaimed movies, a handful of which won AVN Awards. Her
newest scenes, however, are being rolled out by the Montreal-
based heavyweights Brazzers and Digital Playground, where she
is now also an exclusive contract director.
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“In December 2017, ‘Stormy Daniels’ as a
search term did not register in the top 100 on
our site,” Kennedy revealed. “In January 2018 her
name was No. 14. In February it dropped to No.
34 and now she is the No. 2 search term behind
‘big tit.’”
Kennedy noted Stormy was the No. 8 search
term between March 1-24 before the 60 Minutes
segment aired.
Meanwhile in December 2017, Stormy Daniels’
profile page at HotMovies was No. 151 in terms
of popularity but in January her page moved to
No. 40. In February it dropped to 115, but this
month it zoomed back to No. 14, Kennedy said.
Girls Night is currently her most popular movie
on the platform.
“Any performer who is in the news, especially
mainstream news, is featured on the index page
of our site,” Kennedy explained. “Stormy has
been featured a few times since January. We have
also run some sales on both movies that she has
directed and currently on movies in which she
has performed and just today we posted a top list
on our blog.”
Robert Levy, business development at eLine/
Gamelink, told AVN that product revenue for
Stormy has increased 208 percent in 2018 alone.
“People have been buying seven times more
Stormy Daniels movies than they were before,”
Levy said.
“As far as page views, she’s gained 560 percent
more traffic to her star page this year, and a 465
percent increase in organic traffic that she’s
gained us on our site.”
Levy added, “She’s now in our top 20 best-
selling stars, whereas before, she didn’t even
rank in the top 100. Stormy Trumps All is currently
her most popular film. Her previously most
popular film, Stormy Daniels: Wicked Superstar, has
increased in popularity this year by 140 percent.”
Levy said Gamelink has had the native of
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, featured on its front
page for a while as well as spotlighted her in
several marketing emails.
Bishop at AEBN.net said his pay-per-view
portal is seeing a similar Stormy eruption.
“Searches in the theater system are up 529
percent in January over the months prior and
continue to be strong,” Bishop told AVN. “Pay-
per-minute viewing of Stormy movies is up 143
percent from late 2017. Streaming rentals are
up 94 percent and downloads have seen a 373
percent increase. The most watched movies
starring Stormy are Unbridled, Vendetta and The
Madam.
“With each spike of consumer interest in
Stormy Daniels we have done additional product
placement to make her movies easy to find.
Recently, she has been on the splash page,
spotlighted as the featured star, and her movies
have been selectively product placed. We try to
provide the content fans are looking for without
too much searching.”
During the post-60 Minutes time frame,
(Continued on page 97)