Profit Margin
9.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 512
NAICS 512 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
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.
Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries sits in the 23rd percentile for employment and the 83rd percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
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 FY2020–2026SBA 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
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries ranks #59 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #13 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (9.3% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (333,045 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Information · Rankings
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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.