The USA creates and hosts 24.53% of the world’s porn. That’s down from a staggering 60% in 2013, but the USA still leads the way. The beating heart of America’s porn industry sits in California, in the San Fernando Valley, which has earned the name ‘Porn Valley.’
The San Fernando Valley has been associated with the porn industry since the 1970s, but the valley’s reputation as the porn capital of the world has gone up and down more times than a male pornstar’s junk. The last fifty years have been a bumpy ride…
In this guide, we look at the history of Porn Valley, how it started, what trouble it’s gotten itself into, and where it sits today. Is San Fernando still the capital of American Porn?
We also look at the most famous porn companies still operating out of San Pornando and some notable documentaries and TV shows that have helped to mythologize this legendary 260 square miles.
Why Is San Fernando Called The Capital of Porn?
San Fernando is called the capital of porn because the United States produces a quarter of the world’s porn, most of it is made in California, and most of that is made in San Fernando.
It’s estimated that over 6,000 porn flicks are shot in the USA every year, and although that number is probably higher (but not as high as it was in the 90s), most of them are still made in The Valley.
At its peak in the 90s, the Valley produced over 80% of America’s porn and 90% of the country’s sex toys. The adult industry based in these 260 square miles of California was raking between $4 billion and $11 billion annually.
Wow.
These days, however, the output from Porn Valley is closer to that of Eastern Europe, particularly the Czech and Hungarian porn industries, and the San Fernando Valley is only considered the porn center of the USA, not the world.
The last 50 years have seen the Valley’s porn output rise and fall. Even though some studios moved to Las Vagas and elsewhere during the 80s downturn, the Valley has survived boom and bust. Many of your favorite porn companies operate out of the unmarked, glamour-free warehouses north of the Hollywood Hills, including Vivid Entertainment, Wicked Pictures, and Digital Playground. Therefore, Porn Valley is as relevant to adult entertainment today as it has always been, only on a smaller scale.
Porn Valley is home to other industries, including pharmaceutical, insurance, finance, and technology companies, so it’s not all porn. Disney, Warner Bros., Universal Studios, and Dreamworks Animation all have headquarters in the area.
So, what’s the appeal?
In a word, location.
The area appealed to early moviemakers not only because of its predictable climate and variety of scenery but also because it was easier to avoid being sued by the Thomas Edison Motion Picture Patents Company of New Jersey. This was over 100 years ago, mind you. However, the proximity of the Hollywood film industry still adds to the Valley’s attraction and appeals to the adult industry for reasons we’ll discover below.
First, though, we must ask: How did it all start? How did 260 square miles of farmland come to be the home of the largest porn-producing country in the world?
The Origins of Porn Valley
Situated just north of Los Angeles, slightly away from prying eyes but close enough to the hub of the corporate movie business, the Valley is the perfect place to shoot porn. Even the weather’s nice. Usually.
Once upon a time, these 260 square miles of California played host to agriculture, cattle farming, and gold prospecting. Then came a new gold rush: movies. Hollywood rolled its wagons into the area, made itself at home, and the rest is history.
In the 1970s, as porn became more accessible, legally easier to make, and popular, porn producers also took advantage of the Valley’s low rents, cheap labor, good weather and accessibility of the resources that support Hollywood. After all, the San Fernando Valley was already home to many mainstream movie studios; the infrastructure was there, as was the pool of local talent, from grips to gaffers and from fluffers to financiers.
It helped that Hugh Hefner chose Los Angeles as a local base of operations for his Playboy company. The move lent respectability to the area, and not only did this attract models but also anyone involved in the magic of adult moviemaking. Photographers such as Suze Randall made their home there, and the area became the go-to place for young wannabes hoping to make it big in Hollywood by starting in adult entertainment.
By the late 70s, San Fernando Valley had earned itself the nickname of San Pornando Valley and was playing host to a wealth of rising porn companies and stars. John Holmes, the inspiration behind the movie, ‘Boogie Nights’ was a resident and, it is said, was so crucial to the burgeoning porn industry he insured his ‘junk’ for $14 million. A sure sign that in the 70s, San Fernando porn was, like Holmes, on the up…
Early Days of Adult Entertainment in San Fernando
1969 to 1984 saw the Golden Age of Porn, and we can thank Andy Warhol for the pleasure. At least, ‘Blue Movie,’ a Warhol film, was put on general release on June 12 1969, soon followed by ‘Mona’ in 1970, and both were mainstream, adult, erotic movies. Not quite what we consider porn today, but a good start.
At the same time, what with Playboy opening a base in LA, film studios already shooting in San Fernando, and an increase in cheap immigrant labor—not to mention all those Hollywood hopefuls looking for a casting couch— the porn industry moved into the valley and the cameras began to roll.
As did the industry. Like a rolling snowball, it gathered momentum through the decade until the Reagan administration of the 1980s tightened obscenity laws and declared a war on porn. Paul Pearlman, a Valley porn producer at the time, described the era as causing a sudden shift in American values, and porn was the first victim. Some companies moved to Las Vegas, where the laws were more flexible, and some studios closed, but others battled on.
Their persistence paid off, and after a change in national administration, the 1990s once again saw porn in the Valley flourish. With video more readily available, porn viewing shifted from theatres to the privacy of the home, and business boomed. The affordability of handheld cameras made shooting porn easier and cheaper, and then came the internet.
Suddenly, streaming porn directly into your home was possible, and there was no need even to visit a video store. Meanwhile, the cost of film production rose. Still, although many mainstream studios moved operations abroad where production was cheaper, the adult industry dug in its stilettoes and continued to operate from the Valley.
In 1999, the output from mainstream moviemakers fell by 13%, while the production by USA porn companies rose by 25%. Porn wasn’t going to roll over and play dead.
Further reading: See our historical guides to the wider porn industry below.
Porn Valley’s Role In The Rise of Home Video
Much of the success of the Valley’s porn industry during the 90s was due to the availability of home video.
Thanks to the invention and use of straight-to-video cameras and playback machines, Porn viewing crept out of the dark and dingy public theatres to spanking-new home VCRs, but this change didn’t happen overnight.
Porn was being shot directly to tape in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until VHS won the popularity battle against Betamax and more and more homes acquired a video player (even at $800 apiece) that porn on tape took off. By the end of the 70s, ‘erotic’ movies accounted for more than half of all videotape sales in the USA, most of which were being made in the San Fernando Valley.
Where porn-making has always followed, and sometimes shaped, technology, so the Valley has followed: From celluloid to videotape, to internet, digital, and now Virtual Reality, porn has kept pace.
Landmark Cases: How Legal Issues Have Shaped Porn Valley
Porn production in Porn Valley has not always been easy, and one of the reasons for that is the long arm of the law. As well as fighting with changes in technology and public taste, the AIDS crisis and the 2020 pandemic, the Valley porn industry has had to deal with changes in the law.
Obscenity Law
The definition of ‘obscene’ has been an ongoing argument in the USA since 1868, but is one which was settled in 1973 with Miller vs. California.
This was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which modified the definition of obscenity from that of utterly without socially redeeming value to anything that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
So, as long as your porn has literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, it’s OK to continue making it.
Meanwhile, the USA Department of Justice states: Federal law prohibits the possession with intent to sell or distribute obscenity, to send, ship, or receive obscenity, to import obscenity, and to transport obscenity across state borders for purposes of distribution.
However, thanks to California establishing a legal precedent that porn making didn’t count as prostitution, and having less restrictive obscenity laws, producing porn in the Valley is not illegal. There is also an argument about constitutional rights, and obscenity cases, these days, are rare. Challenges to the porn world now tend to come from models speaking out about abuse suffered on-set rather than the general public complaining about obscenity.
Condoms
Porn Valley experienced a downturn in output following the introduction of the County of Los Angeles Safer Sex In the Adult Film Industry Act in December 2012. All porn actors had to wear condoms, and the law led to many porn models and production companies moving to work in Las Vegas and elsewhere where the local law wasn’t as restrictive.
The LA law caused a 95% reduction in the number of adult film permits being filed in the city, but some companies stayed and stuck it out until the law was overturned in 2016, when, it was hoped, business would return to the Valley.
Revenge Porn
In 2021, California explicitly outlawed nonconsensual pornography.
You might think anything nonconsensual should be illegal anyway, but in porn, it wasn’t. Not for a while, at least. We’re talking about what became known as GF porn; home tapes made by couples for their private titillation or for sharing with others into the same exhibitionism, but which later found their way into the hands of the wider public without the consent of one of the parties involved.
Although this may not have affected the major players shooting exclusives in Porn Valley with paid models, it affected the giants such as Pornhub, xHamster, and others who thrived on self-submit content.
It was a question of proving permission and being satisfied that what you were offering your viewers was not only made with but also displayed, with both-party consent. In other words, if one of the parties was using it as revenge, they were in trouble, as was the company displaying it.
In 2014, an anonymous ‘Jane Doe’ took umbrage with her ex because he shared explicit photos of her online without her permission. These pics reached friends, work colleagues, and the sites MyEx and Tumblr.
Hell hath no fury and all that… Jane Doe won $6.4 million, and the law now deters others from sharing explicit images without permission. In California, Civil Code 1708.85, although being a bit of a mouthful, gives you the right to bring action against anyone who shares your nude or sexual imagery without your consent.
Self-submit sites beware.
10 Famous San Fernando Porn Companies
It is said that Sanford Productions, founded by Bill Margold in the early 1970s, was the first porn company to operate in the San Fernando Valley. Still, although there has been a decline in porn making since the Valley’s peak in the 1970s (and re-peak in the 1990s), it is home to many large porn companies.
You’ll be pleased to know porn making in Pornando Valley is alive and kicking.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the biggies.
1. Vivid Entertainment
Known for its content partnerships with celebs and high-quality productions, Vivid Entertainment was founded in 1984 by Steven Hirsch and David James. By 2006, Vivid was one of the leading porn companies in the USA and had gained a reputation for employing top adult performers and producing high-quality adult movies.
Although best known for what we see on its membership site (Vivid.com), Vivid has diversified over the years to include Video on Demand, other distribution channels, and licensing. Over the years, it has won many industry awards, including some of the more unusual ones, such as Best Musical Soundtrack (AVN), and has provided content for radio shows. It moved to having an online-only business in 2014.
The Vivid membership site offers porn in 37 categories, including gonzo, parodies, cosplay, BBW, lesbian and hardcore. With over 7,000 movies on its site and over 35 years of experience, Vivid is one of the still-running success stories of the San Fernando Valley.
2. Wicked Pictures
A significant player in the porn world and primarily known for its ‘feature’ porn films, Wicked Pictures was founded in 1993 by Steve Orenstein and is still going strong. It’s mainly known for its couple-friendly porn-making approach and story-driven movies.
Over the years, the company developed its ‘Wicked Girls’ line of exclusive contract pornstars, including Chasey Lain and Jenna Jameson, the first two Wicked Girls. Its site has now grown to contain over 6,000 Wicked movies, and its popularity and success have much to do with its ability to keep up with current trends.
For example, they remastered some earlier scenes starring Stormy Daniels and titled the series ‘Stormy Trumps All.’ Consequently, Stormy Daniels became the most searched pornstar in 2018.
Wicked has collected its share of awards over the years and won 30 AVN and Xbiz awards between 1994 and 2016 alone. It continues to produce top-quality adult entertainment and is one of the top adult companies working out of Porn Valley.
3. Digital Playground
Digital Playground is recognized for its big-budget adult films. The company was founded 30 years ago (1993) by ‘Joone’ and, from the outset, has provided hardcore adult movies with professional cinematography, giant sets, excellent models and engaging storylines.
Like Wicked, it has contracted exclusive stars (and employed agency models) and now has a model listing of 1,185 glamorous and talented female models appearing in over 3,360 scenes.
These are taken from their DVD distributions, with more than 468 to their name, but DP does stop with porn DVDs and a membership site.
In the late 90s, Digital Playground created interactive CD-ROMs, allowing viewers to manipulate pornstars. It was the first company to shoot a porn scene in Tahiti and Bora Bora (2004). Along with its numerous industry awards, and despite or because it changed leadership (it was sold to MindGeek in 2012), DP continues to thrive from its Porn Valley beginnings, offering thousands of porn flicks now with 4K HD viewing, and continues to pump out porn with top-level production values.
4. Jules Jordan Video
Notable for its gonzo-style adult films, Jules Jordan Video was founded by – no prizes for guessing – Jules Jordan, an adult film performer, producer and director. Since its founding, the company has won many industry awards, employed exclusive and agency models, and has kept itself fresh by offering diverse content; feature-length gonzo porn movies included.
The company’s reputation is so strong that it can attract star directors to its Valley studios, including Manuel Ferrara, Mike Adriano and Jenna Haze. Its membership site’s model list reads like a who’s who of the USA porn world and includes Riley Reid, Angela White, and Adriana Chechik, to name a few. More than 2,500 JJ videos are now available online, with newer ones being produced in Ultra HD.
Jules Jordan has won at least 12 industry awards for Best Director, not to mention the gongs received for the sites, videos, and models. All this makes him one of the Valley’s tremendous success stories.
5. Evil Angel
Founded by John Stagliano in 1998 and known for its hardcore content, Evil Angel has been a raging Valley success story since the start.
The company produces edgy, gonzo-style porn movies and often employs fetish elements to heighten the sexual tension. Starting with videotape production, the company moved into selling VHS online in 2005 and opened its online presence in 2010. A revamp came ten years later, and its membership site (EvilAngel.com) now contains a staggering 18,800+ porn scenes.
Not all of them are exclusive to Evil Angel, but they are still of the highest production standards.
The Valley has been good to Evil Angel, and the company has risen to the heights of the porn-world top lists and remained there. Along the way, it has diversified to open and control its subsidiary Elegant Angel and create the famous Buttman Series of anal porn. Evil Angels was the most financially successful Valley porn company in 1997, and in 2007 alone, it received 127 industry award nominations from AVN.
Porn Valley suits Evil Angel, and it continues to thrive.
6. Hustler
Hustler needs no introduction. The magazine was launched by Larry Flynt in 1974 and has long been associated with Beverly Hills, the Valley and the LA area. The brand now includes magazines, films, and Hustler products, and like Evil Angel, is one of the area’s most well-known success stories.
Hustler Magazine is iconic in the industry but doesn’t limit itself to print. The magazine is now available as a digital publication, and Hustler’s online presence includes a highly successful membership site (Hustler.com) with over 12,200 scenes and 5,000 professionally shot glamour and hardcore galleries. The name alone is enough to attract the creamiest pornstar crop, including India Summer, Phoenix Marie and Katie Morgan.
Even though Larry Flynt died in 2021, his empire lives on, winning industry awards, producing new high-class porn from the Valley, and it continues to publish the magazine that gave birth to the legend of Hustler.
7. Penthouse
Penthouse is another glam success story from the 260 square miles of Californian porno real estate. However, Penthouse began in England in 1965 and didn’t make it to the USA until 1969, at the height of the feminist movement and sexual revolution. It seems not necessarily a bad thing because Penthouse went on to attract glamorous models and writers such as Isaac Azimov and Gore Vidal.
Originally a magazine rival to Playboy, Penthouse expanded into film production in the early 90s. The company’s founder, Bob Guccione, invested considerable money into the mainstream movie, ‘Caligula’ (1979) and expanded into home video in 1991. Penthouse now hosts an adult website (Penthouse.com) with over 4,850 videos and 10,000 glamour image sets and has tinkered with a casino business, car racing, and 3D porn.
Whatever Penthouse gets involved in does well, it seems, and it remains another Valley success story.
8. New Sensations
Chatsworth is noted as being the hub of the adult entertainment industry in Porn Valley, if not the whole of the USA, and it is where New Sensations now lives.
Started in 1993 by Scott Taylor, New Sensations is known for its gonzo movies and adult feature films. It also produces parodies and a little Kink. Its category list is diverse, and that’s another reason it has been considered one of the leading adult industry companies for so long.
As with Hustler, Evil Angel and others, the company now has a substantial online presence offering thousands of adult movies, many exclusive, and attracting the best names in porn. Abella Danger, Lana Rhoades, and Brandi Love have all worked for New Sensations, bringing hundreds of new members to the paysite weekly.
New Sensations members enjoy over 7,500 videos (NewSensations.com) from this multi-award-winning company that still thrives in Porn Valley.
9. Adam & Eve
Adam & Eve is a slightly different story. The company not only produces adult movies but also adult sex toys and other products. These products concentrate on sexual wellness and include own-brand condoms, lingerie and novelties sold via the Adam & Eve e-commerce site.
Alongside the product line (which has been thriving for 50 years), Adam & Eve also sells porn videos that the company makes and distributes for maximum profits.
From its home in California, Adam & Eve runs a Video On Demand store (AdamEveVOD.com) that houses 9,235+ new release scenes alone. That’s one feather in the hat. Another is its membership site, Adam & Eve Plus, an amalgamation of Adam & Eve VOD and Adam & Eve TV.
This setup allows punters to choose between rental or membership and ties in with the online store, giving you all your porn and sex-fun needs in one place. It shows how adult industry companies have diversified over the years yet maintained strong ties with San Fernando and the surrounding area.
10. Girlfriends Films
As the title suggests, Girlfriend Films specializes in lesbian-themed content. However, these aren’t your typical male-imagined lesbian scenes which often employ a guy or a guy stand-in suspiciously shaped like a penis.
Yes, they use toys, but the movies are more well-known for their storylines and characters, which set them apart from the regular standards of gonzo lesbian porn. Dan O’Connell and ‘Moose’ founded the company in 2002, and it has seen raging success ever since.
In 2012, the studio took over 37,000 square feet of studio space in Valencia, California, and from there, have produced AVN and Xbiz award-winning scenes, particularly in the Best All-Girl Series categories. Its membership site (GirlfriendsFilms.com) offers full DVDs (834) and individual scenes (3,653), along with a model roster of 1,397 young newbies and established porn stars.
With girl-girl action being the only thing on offer, there are no dicks in sight, nor in site, and that, along with its offer of a free membership to Penthouse, is one of the reasons you’re looking at another Valley success.
Is The Gay Porn Industry Active In Porn Valley?
You might also wonder where the gay porn industry is in all of this.
It seems the big gay adult companies like Raging Stallion, Titan and Hot House used to be at home in San Fernando but, in the early 2000s, moved north to San Francisco. The gay porn industry contributes roughly 10% to the overall porn market, and while much of it has moved to San Fran, the straight porn world remains firmly rooted in San Fernando.
Documentary and TV Coverage of Porn Valley
Many movies have been made about the porn world, ‘Boogie Nights’ being the most famous. Although these are ‘based on real events’ and people, they are still a mix of fact and fiction, while the adult industry inspires others.
Here are some notable examples of mainstream coverage:
- Inserts (1974). A silent film director turns to making sex films.
- Finding Bliss (2009). Julie Davis (editor of The Playboy Channel) created this rom-com series set between the adult and mainstream film worlds.
- Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001). An exploration of the personal and professional life of a well-known male pornstar who worked almost exclusively in the Valley.
- Humpday (2009). Two drunk, straight guys make a gay porno for an amateur porn contest. (Won an award at the Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
- Inside Deep Throat (2004). Documentary about the making and history of this classic.
There are more, but we’re looking for the factual, can-be-believed exposes of the San Fernando Valley porn industry. ‘Deep Throat,’ for example, although one of the most famous porn movies of all time, wasn’t made in the Valley but in Miami, Florida.
The San Fernando Valley has achieved almost cult status in popular culture, but why? Is it because everyone wants to be in movies, and anyone can be a porn model?
A few authoritative documentaries have fully exposed the reality of working in Porn Valley, and here’s a little about each.
Porno Valley
This 13-part documentary series explores the real lives of the models who work for Vivid Entertainment. The series aired between January and April 2004 and followed six months in the lives of Briana Banks, Mercedez, Savanna Samson, and others considered the most successful female models in the porn industry.
When aired in the UK on Sky Television, the documentary was titled Vivid Valley because the San Fernando Valley is where Vivid Entertainment operates. It was shown in the US on Playboy TV and the Independent Film Channel and brought viewers into the heart of the Californian porn industry.
The series spared no details, and episodes covered various aspects of the business, including the private lives of Tawny Roberts, Jenna Jameson and others, castings and auditions, the lives of scriptwriters, stylists and other behind-the-scenes employees, and interviewed the models’ families for their opinions.
Porndemic
Porndemic, 2018, is a documentary film that looks at the effects of HIV on the porn industry and focuses explicitly on the Valley in 1998. Produced by Thunderbolt Productions and directed by Brendan ‘Spooky’ Daly, it includes interviews with Tricia Devereaux, Ron Jeremy and Marc Wallace, among other leading lights. Larry Flynt also makes an appearance.
As well as examining how AIDS affected the industry, the documentary talks about an ‘epidemic’ of porn addiction, talks to experts in law and order about obscenity laws, and interviews some of those who work at the corporate level of the porn industry.
Porndemic has been described as revealing ‘A shocking inside story’ and providing an exposé of ‘A deadly scandal’ when it appears to be an honest look at what was happening in the San Fernando Valley in the late 1990s.
Pornucopia
Pornucopia: Going Down in the Valley was released in 2004 and produced by HBO. The six episodes follow the lives of various porn employees working for top companies in the San Fernando Valley. This mini-series goes with a ‘day in the life’ style rather than lecturing about the history of the industry in the Valley.
The candid interviews include Jenna Jameson, Even Stone, Stormy Daniels, Jeff Stryker and Katie Morgan. One of the things you’ll take away from the series is an understanding of how these models and crew members are, away from the cameras, ordinary people.
The series examines the audition and casting process, on-set realities (“Someone get me a hard cock on this set now!” being one of the more famous moments), porn and the internet, Kink and its business, couples and spouses working together in porn, porn parodies and the AVN Awards.
MINX
Minx is another HBO series, but this one is ‘based on’ and ‘inspired by’ rather than being a factual exposé of life in San Fernando. It is set in the 1970s and focuses on journalism and how a feminist journalist, Joyce, played by Ophelia Lovibond, teams up with a ‘low-rent smut publisher’ played by Jake Johnson to produce a feminist magazine featuring full male nudity.
The story is set against the background of the porn world in the San Fernando Valley and quietly takes some inspiration from Hugh Hefner and the real-life story of the first European sex paper, Suck. Suck, a magazine begun in 1969.
Minx pays homage to the Valley’s reputation and its history of hosting porn publishers and others who contributed to sexual liberation between the 1950s and 1970s.
Other Shows Related to San Fernando
The Valley has attracted much attention because of its porn industry, but other TV documentaries and series have been based in or inspired by the area. Although not necessarily about the Valley, they are of interest for general coverage, and include:
- After Porn Ends (2012) interviews stars who worked in the Valley and discovers what they did after leaving porn.
- After Porn Ends 2 (2017) features the same stars five years later.
- X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (2015) examines the cultural effect and history of particularly influential adult films, some of which were made in the Valley between the 1970s and 2010s.
Porn Valley Successors: The New Capitals of Porn?
From its peak of porn in the 1970s, through the trough of the 1980s, and back up to the top in the 1990s, the San Fernando Valley has been the porn capital of the USA — and at one time, the world.
In 2013, the USA was still the world’s number one porn host, with 60% of the world’s porn domains hosted by the country. At the same time, California and the Valley accounted for 66% of porn sites. Valley porn was still throbbing— but online.
The American porn industry declined during the mid-2000s due to several factors, and by 2007, it was estimated that the amount of porn revenue made in the Valley had fallen between 30% and 50%.
The CEO of Camasutra VR put this decline down to “A perfect storm.” In effect, the adult industry had been hit hard by:
- The global recession
- Federal obscenity prosecutions under the Bush administration
- Widespread digital-content pirating
Among all of this, San Fernando lost its crown as the porn-producing capital of the world, which begs the question, where is the new porn capital of the world?
The World’s Fastest Growing Porn Hubs
Well, it turns out, there is more than one contender to the title: “Capital of Porn“.
Let’s start close to home in the USA:
Las Vegas
Several significant porn players have moved from the Valley to Las Vegas to avoid Californian laws surrounding safe sex. Las Vegas has its own laws to contend with, but parent-state Nevada offers much more freedom. In fact, it is synonymous with the legal prostitution industry, and Nevada is home to some of the country’s most famous legal brothels.
Las Vegas also has a thriving sex scene, that we’ve covered in depth.
Now, the City of Sin plays host to adult entertainment production and, in particular, webcam modeling. Some notable names and companies who moved to the area include John Stagliano (Evil Angel), LA Direct Models, Corbin Fisher and Men.com. AVN also hold their important expos there.
The local Yellow Pages list 56 Adult Film Companies in Las Vegas, which may not sound like a great deal. Still, when you add them to the strip joints, adult modeling agencies, post-production companies, conference centers and other industries that feed porn, you can see why Las Vegas is becoming the go-to place for the major adult producers.
Miami
Miami, Florida, is also fast becoming a significant player in the porn world, not that it hasn’t always had its share. It’s become particularly popular with amateur porn makers and independent porn companies, and climate and location backdrops have much to do with this.
It’s like visiting a town stuffed with bookshops or antique shops. You might wonder how one town can support so many of the same things, but it manages.
It’s because the place becomes a hub for professionals, collectors, distributors and those in the trade. Going to one place for all your needs is better than traveling around individual towns, cities and states. Miani has become a central porn hub, with its Yellow Pages listing over 116 film companies involved in adult entertainment, from makers to sellers.
Prague, Czech Republic
Looking abroad, Prague in the Czech Republic now has a reputation for being one of Europe’s leading producers of porn, and it is estimated that 12.88% of the world’s pornstars come from the country. The output is so prolific that Czech porn is one of the top categories on nearly all the top porn sites.
Some American companies have chosen to shoot their porn in the Czech Republic thanks to more sympathetic legal regulations and cheaper production costs. For example, the fine for having sex in public is 5,000 Crowns (Approx. $220), a slap on the wrist for a major porn studio dealing in outdoor sex scenes.
Like Miami, the more you have of one thing in one place, the more you attract, and since the fall of communism, Prague has become known for its availability of escort services, among other adult-entertainment-related businesses.
It’s particularly popular with makers of gay porn, including big guns William Higgins, and Bel Ami. Still, there’s now a growing and thriving output from straight porn makers too, namely Fake Hub and the ‘Czech Cash’ sites such as Czech Casting, and Czech Fantasy. Then there is WGCZ, the Prague-based company behind XVideos and XNXX.
Budapest, Hungary
In 2019, Hungary and the Czech Republic had the highest number of pornstars per one million inhabitants.
- 75.7 for Hungary
- 70.7 for the Czech Republic
The next closest was Latvia at 13, and Russia at only 5.
The rise in porn output from Hungary (and other eastern-European countries) has much to do with finance and law; it’s cheaper to produce there, and the laws are friendlier. It also has much to do with digital infrastructure and location/ease of travel. The models are pretty hot, too!
Following the 1989 change in political regime, Christoph Clark, the French porn actor and director, claims to have been the first big name to move his operations to Budapest in 1991.
Since then, other companies have moved to or set up in Hungary to the point that in the early 2000s, an estimated 200 porn flicks were being shot there every year. These included both straight and gay movies, and now we can add live cam sites to the list of porn companies working out of Budapest.
Will Porn Valley Rise Again?
Many famous porn companies still call San Fernando Valley their home. We can’t see that changing anytime soon, but it’s unlikely that Porn Valley will ever reach the dominant heights that it saw in its heyday.
The adult industry has fundamentally changed. It’s also grown to the point where San Fernando Valley simply isn’t big enough to contain the vast output that goes in to this multi-billion dollar industry.
Other European porn hubs like Budapest and Prague will continue to eat away at Porn Valley’s market share, which may (or may not) be hampered by local laws and regulations. It’s tug of war that shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
Are you intrigued by the famous Porn Valley? We hope you’ve enjoyed this inside look at the past, present and future of San Fernando!
