Information ·NAICS 512

NAICS 512 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries - Industry Benchmarks

$66,393/yr average annual pay, with 1,272 SBA loans on record for NAICS 512.

9.3%
Net margin
333K
Workers employed
$66,393/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$469M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 512

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries runs a 9.3% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 30K establishments employing 333K workers.

9.3%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
333K
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$66,393/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$469M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries sits inside Information at a 9.3% net margin (in line with the national median), $117.2B in aggregate receipts across 36,933 returns, averaging $3.2B per establishment.

30,226 establishments employ 333,045 workers (11.0/location) at $66,393/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.

Profit Margin

9.3%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$117.2B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$10.9B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

333,045

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$66,393/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

30,226

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 24,584; establishment count decreased by 145. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries revenue goes

Workforce scale

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries margin vs national reference points

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries net margin 30.9%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
36,933 returns 100%

Margin: 9.3% · Receipts: $117.2B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
36,933
Avg Receipts per Business
$3.2B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$22.1B
Avg Employees per Establishment
11.0

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Motion Picture and Video Industries

NAICS 5121

 10.2%
Sound Recording Industries

NAICS 5122

 -1.9%

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 145,162
New York 29,110
Texas 20,908
Florida 12,251
Georgia 9,492
Illinois 8,619
Tennessee 7,281
North Carolina 5,606
Pennsylvania 5,273
New Jersey 5,075

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

1,272

Total Loan Volume

$469M

Avg Loan Size

$369K

Jobs Supported

8,136

Program Breakdown

7(a) 1,143 (90%)
504 129 (10%)

Top SBA Lender

Wells Fargo Bank National Association

85 loans in this industry

New Business Share

20.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
126
2021
161
2022
182
2023
216
2024
269
2025
281
2026
37

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries?
$117.2B in total annual receipts across all Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries businesses. Average per business: $3.2B.
How profitable is Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries?
9.3% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries?
30,226 business establishments. Together they employ 333,045 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries?
$66,393/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 11.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries employment?
California leads with 145,162 workers. New York (29,110) and Texas (20,908) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries receive?
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries businesses received 1,272 SBA loans totaling $469 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $369K. These loans supported 8,136 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 512 · Data year: 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.