Several major shifts affected the gay porn industry: the advent of home video when anyone could purchase a movie to view in private the AIDS pandemic, which compelled models to be extremely healthy-looking and caused safer sex depictions to become the standard on-screen and the emergence of the Internet allowing live streaming, social networking and amateur pornography to change how stars are discovered, marketed and even viewed as the films do not have to be copied, packaged and delivered, although those options remain.
Over time the " heterosexual adult industry blossomed in Southern California" and often included gay content. The modern roots of films can be traced to the early 1970s when movies were shown in New York theaters.
Gay pornographic films trace their origins to the Athletic Model Guild, founded in Los Angeles in 1945, which produced photographs and still images later turned into films and porn loops. The gay market is estimated to be five to ten percent of the overall adult market. Pornography has become more mainstream and as of 2009 was a $13 billion industry in the United States globally consumers spent more than US$3000 on porn every second of every day, in 2009. This is a list of notable men who have appeared in gay pornographic films. Channel 1 Releasing is co-owned by the most awarded director in the gay adult film genre Chi Chi LaRue, who got his start in the business directing for Catalina in the 1980s.6 gay pornographic actors during the 2010 Blatino Erotica Awards In 2007, Channel 1 Releasing acquired Catalina Video and began remastering, re-packaging and re-releasing several of its classic titles for the first time on DVD. It produced landmark films such as "Big Guns," "Hot Rods: Young and Hung II," "Sailor in the Wild," "Undercover," "The Rise," "Jawbreaker," and GayVN Magazine's cited "Best Gay Adult Movie of All Time" "Powertool," the ground-breaking studio is also credited for single-handedly building the bisexual film market with hits such as "The Big Switch" and "Revenge of the Bi-Dolls."Ĭatalina Video discovered numerous awarded actors including Kip Noll, Kevin Williams, Mike Henson, Steve Rambo, John Davenport, Matt Ramsey (aka straight male porn superstar Peter North), Brandon Lee and gay porn icon Jeff Stryker who made many successful films for the label including "In Hot Pursuit," "The Switch Is On," "The Look" and "Powertool." The company's fortunes improved, and they opened a second studio in San Francisco.įounded in 1978, by legendary director/producer William Higgins, Catalina Video was the "Crown Jewel" of the gay adult entertainment industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1987, Scott Masters was hired as its head of production, and he began making films for the studio. The company was primarily a distributor for Nova Studios in 1982. Catalina Video is an award-winning production house of gay pornography, founded in 1978 by William Higgins.