Some interesting numbers on the ticket sales of feature-length films have been released recently by TheNumbers.com, a website that monitors official box office data. Movie ticket sales may well reach record numbers by the end of 2009, with over 800 million tickets having been sold so far this year. Last year’s number, approximately 1.3 billion tickets sold, might be shattered come December. In 2007, the box office leader was Spider-Man 3 which sold 48,914,288 tickets. Compare that to 2008’s sales leader, The Dark Knight, which sold 73,955,652 tickets. This year’s current leader is Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which has already, in July, hit 50,669,655 tickets sold and is still in theaters. Since 1995, all the top-grossing films have been PG or PG-13 rated, except for Disney’s Finding Nemo, which was rated G. Hollywood has been thriving on the backs of families looking for a reasonably priced night out. The adult film industry, by contrast, has seen better days.

“The Internet was supposed to be a tremendous boon for the pornography industry,” wrote Matt Richtel of The New York Times in June 2007, “creating a global market of images and videos accessible from the privacy of a home computer. For a time it worked…”.

Yet, sadly, that time was short-lived. The $13 billion per year Goliath is slowly being felled by the pesky Web-based David of the armature scene.

“The online availability of free or low-cost photos and videos has begun to take a fierce toll on sales of X-rated DVDs,” Richtel explains. “Inexpensive digital technology has paved the way for aspiring amateur pornographers, who are flooding the market, while everyone in the industry is giving away more material to lure paying customers.”

What audiences look for in big blockbuster hits seems to be the antithesis of what they look for in porn. They may shell out $12 a head to see Tracy Morgan wow them as Blaster the guinea pig in G-Force, the new Disney 3D flick, but won’t pay $40 for the DVD to see Jesse Jane melt the screen as the first mate in Pirates.

“[U]nlike consumers looking for music and other media,” Richtel observes, “viewers of pornography do not seem to mind giving up brand-name producers and performers for anonymous ones, or a well-lighted movie set for a ratty couch at an amateur videographer’s house.”

Why spend $30 on Michael Ninn’s latest high quality skin flick when all you need is five to 10 minutes of some college-aged first-timer riding some old fat dude in his basement. Oh wait, there’s already a studio that does that…

The porn industry may have one way to right the ship: make feature-length erotic films with big-name box office draws and then release them into theaters!  Something similar was attempted by Penthouse Magazine’s producer Bob Guccione in 1980 with the movie Caligula, but with rather unfortunate results. Still, a lot of people did show up to see it. And if you’ve seen some of what Hollywood has tried to pass off as decent filmmaking recently, like say, No Country for Old Men and The Wrestler, which had about as much plot as your average porn, it could actually work if done right. People will watch pretty much anything.

Hollywood’s terrible scripts and watered-down child-safe drivel would, in a world with even the thinnest shred of justice, wind up being the adult film industry’s biggest gain. Imagine: The adult film industry suddenly populated by some of Tinsel-town’s biggest names, finally with roles they can be proud of! Picture the most dramatic adult films the world has ever known, with a cast of A-listers utilizing their world-class talents for erotic sin-ema. Of course, this is the real world, and there is no justice at all, so it will never be. Or perhaps it’s simply because even porn’s most recognizable face, Tera Patrick, has a net worth of “only” about $30 million, and many female porn stars making “just” between $100K to $250K per year. Chump change compared to Hollywood contracts. Kate Winslet probably makes more money falling out of bed in the morning.

But why dwell on the details? We can dream, can’t we? So, just for shits and giggles, it is SexHerald’s most humble and esteemed honor to present to you: Six Sexy Women That Should Be in Porn!

Scarlett Johansson: Love her or hate her, Johansson has to be number one on this list. She’s the total package, no two ways about it: name recognition, looks, and timeless appeal.  Johansson is reportedly making herself even hotter than she already is, so claims the always reliable OMG!, for the role of Black Widow in the upcoming film Iron Man 2, undergoing rigorous stunt and strength training. Why the intense preparation? In the Marvel comic books, Black Widow, a Russian assassin, always wore a form-fitting black costume.

“The goal was the Lycra catsuit,” Johansson explained. Here’s hoping she does the Russian accent, too!

Adding to Johansson’s bone fides as a potential porn star are some things she might just as well not have to her credit. First, Johansson showed she couldn’t take a compliment back in February of ’09 when she recoiled against a comparison of her to blonde bombshell icon Marilyn Monroe. The comparison was made after Johansson appeared in a steamy pin-up type advertisement for Dolce & Gabbana, in which she sports a rather Monroe-esque bleached blonde hairstyle, fair skin, full red lips, and white corset. Most women, if even mentioned in the same breath as the late Norma Jean Mortenson, would be flush with gratitude. Not Johansson it seems, who insisted that aside being “a curvy woman who is blonde, and perhaps we are both comfortable in our femininity, I think that is as far as the comparison goes.”

Oh, don’t sell yourself short Scarlett, it goes a little farther than that. You and Monroe can both turn a red dress into a red light, stopping traffic in L.A. anytime you wanted. You and Monroe both look equally phenomenal in hair that’s the color of your namesake, as well as blonde. Of course, Marilyn never went at it with Joe DiMaggio or Arthur Miller in an elevator the way you “allegedly” did with Benicio Del Toro after the 2004 Oscars. Johansson denies that story, but damn, if that ain’t proof she’s ready for adult film I don’t know what is. You never even hear about Jenna Jameson cornering Tito Ortiz in any elevators (thankfully). And do to it to a homely bastard like Del Toro, that is hardcore! Move over Hillary Scott! See ya later Stoya! Porn’s got a new “it” girl!

Jennifer Connolly: We can already hear the critic’s perfunctory groans about her selection, but trust us, her fans would froth at the mouth at even the suggestion of this. Connolly’s resume is a mixed bag to say the very least. For all her superb, and at times unsettling, performances, there are a few loud, definitive thuds.  Despite never getting enough credit for her roles in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog, or even her relatively brief role in Ed Harris’ inexplicably underrated Pollack, Connolly has hit her share of walls. You need look no further than The Hulk or He’s Just Not That Into You for evidence of this.

Yet Connolly’s name at the top of a porn movie poster alone would be enough to snake the line at the local AMC around block. Connolly is as classic a knockout as you’ll find.  With a body that will look good in anything, or in almost nothing, Connolly can play up fun and innocent just as well as she can dark and sultry. Connolly can also show us some allure in vulnerability (click here, here and here).

Connolly’s no stranger to amping up the sex appeal, either. The Hot Spot showed off Connolly dripping wet in a black bikini. In Higher Learning, she and co-star Kristy Swanson got experimental on dorm room bed. Finally, fans of hardcore would love to see a director’s cut version of the infamous “Ass to ass!” scene she did in Requiem. It’s really sexy…in a mildly horrifying sort of way.

Halle Berry: Clearly, Berry needs a new agent. A splendidly talented actress who absolutely nailed her portrayal of Dorothy Dandridge back in 1999, has had her name wind up on some forgettable scripts the past few years: Gothika, Robots, Perfect Stranger, and X3, just to name a few. Berry’s killer body and amazing eyes couldn’t even save Catwoman, a movie where she brandished a whip and wore tight black leather for most of it.

But it’s for exactly that reason that she appears on this list. BDSM might not be exactly mainstream, but how much cash do you think a flick featuring the gorgeous Berry dominating a pair of dude-slaves while wearing a dominatrix suit would make? How much do you think the likes of Lexington Steele would just straight up beg for an opportunity like that? How about a re-casted, adult version of Swordfish, so we could see Berry play Ginger Knowles again, in the way that that role was really meant to be played! Maybe get Lee Stone to take Hugh Jackman’s place, and Marco Banderas to replace John Travolta? While we’re at it, let’s redo target="_blank"Monster’s Ball and plug Tommy Gunn into Billy Bob Thorton’s part? If Berry could make a scene with Slingblade look hot, imagine what she could do with a pro!

Naomi Watts: Watts is a sorely underappreciated target="_blank"beauty. Although perhaps best known for her part in The Ring, it’s another films that proves Watts can be an adult entertainment commodity. She and co-star Laura Harring sizzled in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive during a darkly lit lesbian bedroom romp. The scene can be summed up in one word: DAMN! It rivals many girl-on-girl clips from adult film, never mind feature film. The way she gets a bit rough with Harring’s character later in the movie shows she’s got the added potential of teaming with Berry to show sexy Lexy who’s boss.

Marisa Tomei: With all due respect to Tomei, who is by all accounts a talented actress with impressive range, this seems to be the next logical step in her career. In 2008’s The Wrestler, Tomei played an exotic dancer named Cassidy. She does a rather good job of this as well. In 2007, Sidney Lurnet’s deeply unnerving film Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead featured Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman in bed together. We see quite a bit of Hoffman, in several positions, but we also see a lot of Tomei. It’s almost enough to make us forget that Hoffman’s on camera too. All of him. As with Berry, if she worked with a pro, the results could be stellar.
 
Rose McGowan: Last but most certainly not least…do we really need to explain this one? If there’s a market for sinister sexy ladies, McGowan would’ve owned it.  This is a case of someone totally missing their calling. McGowan could have had adult film studios eating out her merciless hand for a contract. Can’t you picture the executives at Digital Sin, VCA, Wicked and NINN WORX stepping over each other and simultaneously throwing themselves at her feet, while she just looked smugly the other way and said, “That’s right, bitches. Crawl!”

McGowan practically killed her own career after showing up to the 1998 MTV Movie Awards wearing little more than her date, Marilyn Manson. McGowan’s shocking, and not to mention awesome, outfit dropped jaws nationwide, but it also assured her a one way ticket out of mainstream film. Her biggest role before Planet Terror was on Charmed.

McGowan’s not exactly what you’d call a convincing actress, but hey, it’s porn we’re talking about. It’s about style, not substance, and McGowan has that practically oozing off her unparalleled DSLs. Talk about a chick that can’t walk into a restaurant because she’s smokin’! How many women could pull off a photo that involves stirrups, a syringe and three silver vibrators? Men wonder how male actors in porn can last so long without orgasming? It’s because they’ve never worked with Rose, whose eyes alone bake concrete.

McGowan’s pole dance in Planet Terror was a dream cum true for her fans. Finally, Quentin Tarantino did something right! McGowan proves that a woman with a weaponized appendage can be sexy.

So much potential…just wasted.