Here's what they had to say:
The most important part of making a blockbuster is cast, cast and cast. Just like with mainstream movies, you must have good, likeable performers for your movie to be a success. To make an adult feature you have to have girls who can act and fuck, which makes it challenging. You might be able to get away with half-assed set design, sub-par lighting, continuity problems, etc. but if your cast sucks than so will your movie.
— Justin Kane, director
Great PR is key. Seriously. Look at "Corruption." They started telling everybody it was amazing before they even shot the movie. As long as you have quality, you'll be fine. But to move a lot of pieces [is another story]. For example, right now parodies are moving a lot of pieces. It's back [to] the days like in the early '90s, of the "Edward Penishands." Now it seems like they're becoming really, really strong again. If you have high-profile performers, a great director — if you have something that's catchy that makes people want to watch the plot as part of the arousal process — then you can sell it.
And if Jeff Mullen is your PR guy [you're set]. He's amazing. He wrote about the Brady Bunch movie as the 'biggest success ever' for the Larry Flynt/Hustler empire, and they hadn't even finished shooting the movie.
The parodies do great, if it's the right moment. I think that Wicked will do great with "Coming Home" because right now is a good time to come out with something like this, and from what I saw from the trailers it seems like really good quality material, so that's it."
— Axel Braun, director
What it takes to make a blockbuster is as many good actors as you can get, a good script, good production values, good scenery and always — good hot sex. There are the big-budget features like 'Operation: Desert Stormy' that I'm proud to be a part of. You know, big storyline, big budgets — like [Digital Playground's] 'Pirates.'
Or, if you want to go for the more gonzo market, the amateur/pro-amateur market, then you just need the second part of it: good-looking people playing themselves and good, hot sex. It's not as big a budget on those, but they have their draw as well. It's all sex and they don't want a storyline, even though I like [storylines].
You can't really say which is better or which is worse — it's what the audience prefers.
'Pirates' and 'Operation: Desert Stormy,' those look like real films that just happen to have sex in them. Like a B-movie, like a Troma Film; I'm in a bunch of those, too.
All the classics of the '80s are big budget films. In the late '70s and early '80s, they didn't have video, DVD, VHS, computers or the Internet. It was just feature films. That was it. "Bad Girls," "Fly By Night," "Coed Fever," "Fascination," Roommates," "Sizzle," "Girls Best Friend" — these are all some of the real big-budget films [of that time].
— Ron Jeremy, director/performer