United States and Canada on
Montreal's
St. Laurent Street , show activitiesinɓactiviChicago, Illinois The earliest
erotic theatres in the U.S. were in California, and showed 35-millimeter low-production-quality independently produced films. In 1960, there existed about twenty theatres in the U.S. that showed erotic movies exclusively. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, they spread to the rest of the country. 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. Small "storefront" theatres with only a dozen seats sprang up, and by 1970, 750 pornographic theatres existed in the U.S. In the 1970s, theatres shifted from showing 35-millimetre sexploitation films to more explicit 16-millimetre "beaver" films. In the 1980s, some theatre owners began forming chains to cut their costs, and, by 1989, the number of U.S. erotic theatres had fallen below 250. 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.
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. Before
Rudolph Giuliani became mayor,
Times Square was New York City's largest district of its "adult" businesses. The
Bijou Theater in Chicago was the longest-running gay adult theater and sex club in the United States. 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.
Japan 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 There are approximately sixty adult
movie theaters in the Netherlands. 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==