Despite the trend of filming low-budget, amatuer porn for the Internet, one adult production company is succeeding in doing the opposite.

The almost $10 million production, Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, sold a record breaking 240,000 copies in the first week after it was released on Sept. 21, said Ali Joone, executive producer.

The average adult film has a budget of around $20,000 and sells less than 1,000 copies. A film selling more than 5,000 copies qualifies as a blockbuster, Joone said. The production company, Digital Playground, expects to sell more than one million copies.

“It’s a calculated risk,” Joone said. “We were spending a lot of money and at the same time charging a lot of money. Everybody thought we were crazy.”

Despite the challenges, Digital Playground took the risk of more than tripling the budget from the $3 million invested on the first Pirates released in 2005.

In the first Pirates, Pirate Captain Victor Stagnetti with his first mate, Serena, kidnap Manuel, the descendant of an Incan king, in efforts to acquire the Scepter of Inca, which gives its owner great powers. Pirate hunters led by Captain Edward Reynolds follow on a mission to save Manuel and kill the pirates.

In the second Pirates there are more special effects, with demons, sea-monsters and the return of the skeleton warriors, this time with their own pirate ship. The sex scenes are longer than in the first film.

Joone said the four-disc set is full of extra features, with the second disc featuring more than two hours of extended sex scenes. He said he wants the customer to feel like it was worth the money.

“We’ve had stores like Hustler Hollywood in Los Angeles sell it for $100, and they run out,” Joone said. “What we feel is that the consumer will pay if it’s a good product.”

With the Internet offering free porn, making a movie selling for $70 seems to be opposing the trend of downgrading.

“Sales across the board-for every company in adult DVD or web-based-are in the toilet,” said Adam Grayson, former host of Sirius Satellite Radio’s adult DVD review for Playboy Radio. “People are stealing and downloading a lot more rather than going to a video store and paying $50.”

The adult industry has changed over the years, using different mediums to disseminate content.

“There was the golden age of porn in the ’70s, and everybody flooded to the theaters,” said Gracie Passette, a lifestyle columnist on Sex-Kitten.net. “But in the ’80s we shrank to video, and everything became private. And with [the introduction of] the Internet, it was about pushing lots of content.”

In contrast to porn on the Internet, Pasette said people will pay for quality.

“It’s going to put off a certain customer, but it’s going to appeal to a part of the market that has not bought or doesn’t buy often,” she said. Rob Delay, manager of Frenchy’s Adult Book Store, 872 N. State St., said he ordered six copies of the video and sold two of them in the first few days.

“Ordering six of the same movie and selling two in the first week is pretty good,” he said.

There are other companies doing similar high-end productions, such as Vivid Entertainment, Wicked Pictures and Private Media Group, based in Spain. Grayson said Digital Playground probably does it best, though he doubts that Pirates II is the most pre-ordered film in the industry.

The film’s appeal is to a wider audience than the average adult film buyers; couples and women are some who may find this film more attractive, Passette said.

“We like to talk about how women like more romance,” she said. “But I think we’re missing that women like more of an aesthetic that surrounds the whole ordeal.”

While the average porn is shot over the weekend, Joone said Pirates II took two years to produce.

“It really comes down to the basics,” he said, “which is a great script, good characters and good marketing.”

In his eyes, the film is taking advantage of the line between adult and Hollywood.

“We can make movies that Hollywood can’t,” Joone said. “So we have a market they can’t even touch.”