Adult movie theater

Movie theater designed for the exhibition of pornographic films

Adult movie theatres and peep shows on Montreal's St. Laurent Street

An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films.

Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patrons, rules are generally less strict regarding partial- or full-nudity and public masturbation or sex, and such behavior may be condoned explicitly or simply tolerated by the management.[1] Such behavior may or may not be legal, and if not, may or may not be overlooked by local law enforcement.[1][2] Certain theaters may also include a stripshow or sex show between films, or other sex industry services.

Before the VCR, and later the Internet, a movie theatre or cinema house was often the only location where people could see hardcore erotic films. The spread of home videos and later of Internet pornography has led to a drastic reduction in the number of adult theatres.[3]

## By region

[edit]

### United States and Canada

[edit]

The earliest erotic theatres in the U.S. were in California, and showed 35-millimeter low-production-quality independently produced films.[4] In 1960, there existed about twenty theatres in the U.S. that showed erotic movies exclusively.[citation needed] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they spread to the rest of the country.[citation needed] The O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, one of America's oldest and best known adult-entertainment establishments, opened as an adult movie theatre in 1969.[5]

Small "storefront" theatres with only a dozen seats sprang up, and by 1970, 750 pornographic theatres existed in the U.S.[6] In the 1970s, theatres shifted from showing 35-millimetre sexploitation films to more explicit 16-millimetre "beaver" films.[7] In the 1980s, some theatre owners began forming chains to cut their costs,[8] and, by 1989, the number of U.S. erotic theatres had fallen below 250.[9]

Restrictions on adult theatres vary by region, and may be restricted by local and state regulations. Local governments commonly prohibit adult theatres from operating within a certain distance of residential areas, parks, churches and/or schools. Often, erotic theatres have been forced to move to the outskirts of cities in order to protect real estate prices in city centers.[10] Renton, Washington was involved in a 1986 Supreme Court case regarding this issue. In its decision on Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., the Court upheld Renton's statute that no adult theatre be located within 1,000 feet of a school, park, church, or residential zone; the Court rejected the theatre owners' argument that the statute violated the First Amendment, because the statute did not seek to ban the existence of adult theaters outright.[11]

Before Rudolph Giuliani became mayor, Times Square was New York City's largest district of its "adult" businesses.[12]

Bijou Theater, Chicago, Illinois

The Bijou Theater in Chicago was the longest-running gay adult theater and sex club in the United States.[13] It closed September 30, 2015.

Today, the largest operator of adult theaters in the United States is Deja Vu Services, Inc. It is controlled by Harry Mohney, whose chain at one time operated 160 adult theaters during the mid ‘60s to mid ‘80s.[14]

### Japan

[edit]

An adult movie theater in Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

Adult theatres are mainly located in urban areas such as business districts and entertainment districts of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Although most of them are managed independently, some are directly managed by pink film production and distribution companies. In the old days, sensational posters were posted outside the building, but due to various regulations, they are now limited to a minimum of posters. At present, many theaters are closed due to the aging of managers, buildings, or the redevelopment of the area. Some movie theaters continue to be managed by rebuilding or moving to existing closed theaters. There are a few new openings.

### Netherlands

[edit]

There are approximately sixty adult movie theaters in the Netherlands.[15]

In 2010, a law on sex companies was under consideration. In addition to municipal rules a national rule was introduced, requiring adult movie theatres to have a pornography display license. An advertisement of the company should contain its license number. The theater must have a sign outside showing the company is licensed, whilst inside, a copy of the license must be displayed.

Non-commercial sexual activities by and amongst clients would not require an additional license, but prostitution on-premises would require an additional prostitution company license.

## Arcades

[edit]

Not to be confused with Adult video game.

Nob Hill theater advertising video arcade

An adult video arcade is a pornographic movie viewing area where masturbation is tolerated and expected (and sometimes openly encouraged). It is almost always attached to a sex shop or an adult book store, where magazines, movies, and sexual aids are sold. An arcade, which is a type of peep show, consists of typically a dozen or more private (or sometimes semi-private) viewing booths, containing a video monitor, a panel of controls, and a seat. Sometimes the booths have paper towels and a wastebasket. Sometimes these booths are arranged in a maze-like fashion. Often the lighting will be dim, perhaps only red or green lights near each booth, indicating their availability. In their origin they were exclusively male.[16]

In their origin, they operated under the pretext that videos were being previewed before buying. It was one film per booth, no choice after entering. While a few existed in the age of the 8mm movie, the relative simplicity of the VCR caused them to multiply. The source was now racks of self-rewinding VCR tape players, instead of the cumbersome projectors. Still, a system required a certain amount of maintenance – breakdowns needed to be repaired, and there were a lot of things to break – which implied good management.

### Transactions

[edit]

Movie time is purchased either by coin or cash activation within the booth, or by purchasing tokens or a block of time in advance.[17] Generally a selection of 15 to 50 movies running in Blu-ray/DVD players is available for viewing, sometimes diverse (e.g., straight, gay, fetish), other times monotonously similar. On some systems four videos may be viewed simultaneously in quadrants of the screen. New video systems operate with computers and provide a selection of several thousand movies.

### Fixtures

[edit]

It is possible for arcades in Europe to have two-person booths, where the seating accommodates a pair sitting together. But this is unusual, and outside Europe unknown.

In the U.S., in some adult book stores, the arcades will have "buddy booths." These booths are adjacent, and allow for interplay between occupants. They may have windows so "buddies" may watch each other masturbate. Between other booths there may be glory holes for oral sex, tolerated by the management (which otherwise would seal the holes).[17][18][19]

If a glory hole is to be found between two booths in a video booth at an adult bookstore, the person who wishes to perform oral sex will normally be seated in his or her booth.[20] Although not a hard and fast rule, that seated (and sometimes kneeling) position commonly signals to others that they are there in order to perform oral sex – which allows those who wish to receive oral sex to take the adjoining booth. That second person, who wishes to have oral sex performed on them, will take the adjoining booth and normally remain standing.[21] Most adult book stores require and enforce that movies be operating at all times while arcade booths are occupied.

## See also

[edit]

* Human sexuality portal
* Erotica and pornography portal
* Film portal

* Casual sex
* Dogging (sexual slang)
* Gay bathhouse
* Glory hole (sexual slang)
* Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
* Troll (gay slang)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Phillip Brian Harper (1999). Private affairs: critical ventures in the culture of social relations. NYU Press. pp. 77–82\. ISBN 0-8147-3594-0.
2. ^ David Steinberg (September 8, 2004). "Lap Victory". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on August 16, 2013.
3. ^ Slade, p. 1067
4. ^ Schaefer, Eric (2002). "Gauging a Revolution: 16mm Film and the Rise of the Pornographic Feature". Cinema Journal. 41 (3): 3–26\. doi:10.1353/cj.2002.0010. JSTOR 1225696.
5. ^ "Legendary porn palace the O'Farrell Theatre closes after 51 years". hoodline.com. 3 November 2020.
6. ^ "Pussycat_Theaters". xyclopedia.net. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
7. ^ Linda Williams (2004). Porn studies. Duke University Press. pp. 370–400\. ISBN 0-8223-3312-0.
8. ^ Slade, p. 1097
9. ^ Slade, p. 1098
10. ^ Slade, p. 752
11. ^ Thomas C. Mackey (2002). Pornography on trial: a handbook with cases, laws, and documents. ABC-CLIO. pp. 95. ISBN 1-57607-275-4.
12. ^ Samuel R. Delany (1999). Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. New York University Press.
13. ^ U.S. v. Toushin, 714 F.Supp. 1452 at 1454 (M.D.Tenn. April 21, 1989).
14. ^ Manack, Dave (2019-12-20). "Harry Mohney: The ED Exclusive". Exotic Dancer. Retrieved 2025-07-03.
15. ^ See Seksbioscoop in Tabel 1 in [1]. This number includes adult movie theatres with a TV-sized screen, see e.g. [2] Archived 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine.
16. ^ Zeeland, Steven (1999). Military Trade. Haworth Press. p. 21\. ISBN 0-7890-0402-X.
17. ^ a b Simpson, Mark (2002). Sex terror: erotic misadventures in pop culture. Haworth Press. pp. 58, 103, 142. ISBN 1-56023-376-1.
18. ^ Adams, Nicholas (2004). My Black Book. iUniverse. pp. 124–130\. ISBN 0-595-30781-7. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
19. ^ O'Hara, Scott (1999). Rarely Pure and Never Simple: Selected Essays of Scott O'Hara. Haworth Press. pp. 45–49\. ISBN 0-7890-0573-5. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
20. ^ The Gloryhole FAQ by Lilfuzzyg (1999)
21. ^ Adams, Nicholas (2004). My Black Book. iUniverse. pp. 116–117\. ISBN 0-595-30781-7. Retrieved 2007-12-31.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Slade, Joseph W. (2001). Pornography and sexual representation: a reference guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-31521-3.

## External links

[edit]

* Legal definitions for adult theaters from The General Laws of the State of Massachusetts, United States
* Missouri Porn Theater Bust Targets Gays
* A view inside of an adult theater catering to men which is also a membership "private" sex club

* v
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Pornography

Pornography|

| Types|

* Amateur
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* Tijuana bible
* Child
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* Hardcore
* Internet
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|

Genres|

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* LGBTQ:
* Lesbian
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Related|

* History
* Film actor

Organizations|

* Adult Film Association of America
* Critics Adult Film Association
* Fans of X-Rated Entertainment
* Free Speech Coalition
* X-Rated Critics Organization
* List of pornography companies
* List of pornographic film studios
* Fuck for Forest

Opposition to
pornography|

| Movements|

* Anti-pornography movement in the United Kingdom
* Anti-pornography movement in the United States
* Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance

|

Organizations|

* Churchmen's Committee for Decent Publications
* Feminists Fighting Pornography
* Fight the New Drug
* The Marriage Vow
* No More Page 3
* Stop Bild Sexism
* Stop Child Trafficking Now
* Stop Porn Culture
* Women Against Pornography
* Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media
* XXXchurch.com

Overuse|

* Accountability software
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Views|

* Feminist
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Media|

* Audio
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Possible effects|

* Pornography addiction
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People|

* British performers
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* Film directors
* List of hentai creators

Events|

* Adultcon
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* Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival
* Brussels International Festival of Eroticism
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* HUMP!
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Miscellaneous|

* Adult movie theater
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See also|

* Erotica
* Art
* Comics
* Film
* Literature
* Photography
* Women's
* Human female sexuality
* Human male sexuality
* Human sexual activity
* Nudity
* Overwatch and pornography
* Pokémon and pornography
* Ribaldry
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* Sexual and reproductive health and rights
* Sexual repression
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* Stanley v. Georgia
* Imagery of nude celebrities
* sex tape

* Category
* Erotica and pornography portal
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