Deep Throat (film) - Production and Revenue

Production and Revenue

The scenes involving Linda Lovelace were shot in North Miami, Florida over six days in January 1972. The interior scenes were shot at a hotel between 123rd and 124th Streets on Biscayne Boulevard, then known as the Voyager Inn. Today the building serves as a dormitory for Johnson and Wales University. The scenes involving Carol Connors were shot in New York City.

The movie was produced by Plymouth Distributing (later Arrow Film and Video) owner Louis "Butchie" Peraino (listed in the credits as "Lou Perry"), with all of the production cost of $22,500 + $25,000 additional for music, coming from his father Anthony Peraino, a "made" member of the Colombo crime family. Gerard Damiano, who had rights to one-third of the profits, was reportedly paid a lump sum of $25,000 once the film became popular and was forced out of the partnership. The film was then distributed by a network of Mafia-connected associates of the Peraino family.

Estimates of the film's total revenues have varied widely: numbers as high as $600 million have been cited, which would make Deep Throat one of the highest grossing films of all time. With an average ticket price of $5, box-office takings of $600 million would imply 120 million admissions, an unrealistic figure. Although subsequent sales of the film on home videotape certainly brought additional revenue, the FBI's estimate that the film produced an income of approximately $100 million may be closer to the truth. Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times also argues for a lower figure in a February 2005 article, pointing out that Deep Throat was banned outright in large parts of the US (as well as many other countries), and only tended to find screenings in a small network of adult theaters in larger urban centers. The directors of Inside Deep Throat responded to the article, suggesting that actual revenues from the film were possibly even higher than the $600 million figure. Hiltzik was unsatisfied with the directors' response, writing that their method was to "construct a seemingly solid box office figure out of layers and layers of speculation piled upon a foundation of sand."

Roger Ebert noted as well in his review of Inside Deep Throat—a 2005 documentary about the film's cultural legacy—that many theaters that screened the film were mob-connected enterprises which probably also "inflated box office receipts as a way of laundering income from drugs and prostitution" and other illegal activities.

In 2006, a censored edition of the film was released on DVD for fans of pop culture and those wishing to own a legitimate copy of the infamous movie. Deep Throat was the first film to be inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame.