The Best of 2016:Gay Porn’s Most Iconic Studios

Benji Lovari showcases some of the gay adult industry’s best known, most iconic studios.

2016 has been a memorable year in gay adult entertainment, with both large studios and small indie sites creating memorable new content and exploring new niches. Back when video and DVD reigned, just a handful of leading studios were universally known to most gay porn fans. Today’s playing field is much more crowded and diverse, but there are still certain studios who have managed to become iconic. This month we’ll look at some studios that had achieved this kind of brand recognition in 2016. There are other sites that are well known, so this list is not meant to be exhaustive. These are simply some of the year’s standouts.

Bel Ami Online
For over a decade, Bel Ami has been creating top quality adult entertainment, setting the bar for its genre. When the studio first began, it was known primarily for beautiful European twinks, but today the studio’s models tend to be muscular and athletic. However, the general mood of idyllic, unspoiled youth has always remained a constant. Bel Ami has had a strong influence on Euro-porn in general, but the  unique look and feel of Bel Ami’s videos is still something that you can only find at Bel Ami. What began as a deliberate artistic vision created by George Duroy has evolved organically over the years into a group effort. Many of Bel Ami’s successful models go on to work behind the scenes in production, creating a creative feedback loop between the models and the creative team. The studio has adapted to changing market tastes over the years to survive, but the unique creative synergy that exists behind the scenes has ensured that Bel Ami’s style has always had a seamless sense of continuity.

C1R
If gay porn had an official mascot, it would probably be Chi Chi LaRue. Larger than life and twice as talented, this well known director, performer, DJ, retail store owner, and activist is the definition of an icon. That said, C1R’s work is a team effort – and the team is still going strong. C1R doesn’t have as high a profile now as it did back in the 90’s, but thanks to smart acquisitions and forward thinking the studio has always remained relevant and it continues to be one of the best known gay adult brands in the world. C1R’s empire now includes Rascal, All Worlds, Catalina, and Dirk Yates. C1R’s back catalog includes over 6,000 scenes and 2,500 full-length movies starring thousands of top performers. C1R was a leader in the early days of live cams with Live and Raw, and today Dirk Yates Live has also joined the studio’s portfolio. Recently C1R has used its brand recognition to expand its Rascal-branded line of sex toys. The toy line also benefits from its association with the now famous adult retail establishment Chi Chi LaRue’s.

Chaos Men
Chaos Men is one of the studios that just keeps cranking out amazing content year after year. Known for their sexy models and high quality production, Chaos Men has earned a strong reputation as a reliable source of top notch porn content. The studio has a style that is all its own and rather than resting on its laurels the studio works hard to keep making its videos even hotter.

Cocky Boys
There will probably never be another gay adult studio quite like Cocky Boys. The studio’s ambitious, full-length features have helped to expand gay porn’s creative boundaries. In addition to happily subscribing to the Cocky Boys website, loyal fans enthusiastically purchase the studio’s DVD’s, art books, and anything else that the studio produces. The bond between Cocky Boys and fans is strong because Cocky Boys engages those fans on several different levels. Fans view the models not only as sex objects, but also as real people who are intelligent, likable, and approachable. The three owners of Cocky Boys have become public figures in their own right and have drawn a lively community of creative and talented people into orbit around themselves. In some ways, Cocky Boys has created a gay porn version of the environment that Andy Warhol brought to life at The Factory.

Corbin Fisher
During Abercrombie & Fitch’s heyday, it wasn’t unusual to hear people referring to clean-cut jocks as “A&F types.” But today, you’re just as likely to hear young gay men referring to such guys as “Corbin Fisher” types – which helps to illustrate just how integral a part of gay culture porn has become (even if we don’t always admit it.) However, the place where Corbin Fisher has truly innovated is behind the scenes. Corbin Fisher’s exclusive models are some of the highest paid and best taken care of models in the industry. The studio has provided models with perks such as medical insurance and college scholarships, which will hopefully be the industry standard one day. Now based in Las Vegas, the studio continues to march to its own drum and to create videos that have a style unlike anyone else in adult entertainment.

Dominic Ford
Since it first launched five years ago, the Dominic Ford site has stayed on the cutting edge of technology, often adopting new formats years before competitors. The skill and artistry behind the scenes is phenomenal and the studio works with all of the industry’s top talent rather than focusing too much on exclusives. Fans may initially come to Dominic Ford because it’s the only place where they can find high quality 3D, 4K, and 3DVR gay porn videos, but they end up staying because the videos are always sizzling hot and gorgeous to look at. The videos at Dominic Ford are clearly a labor of love and passion, and that seems to be what keeps the site’s creative team inspired. Behind the scenes, Dominic Ford has also created technologies to help protect adult studios from content piracy.

Falcon Studios Group
Falcon Studios Group is now the world’s largest producer of gay adult erotica. Founded in 1971, it is also the industry’s most enduring gay adult icon. Falcon Studios is now celebrating it’s 45th anniversary. For almost half a century, the studio has remained relevant and it is perhaps the best known brand in all of gay adult entertainment. The Falcon family now includes JOCKS Studios, Mustang Studios, Falcon International, Falcon Str8 Men, Falcon Edge, Raging Stallion Studios, and Hot House Entertainment. You can read more about this studios in this month’s article about Falcon Studios Group’s 45th anniversary.

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Helix Studios
Many fans now regard Helix Studios as the world’s number one twink studio. Behind the scenes you’ll find a hard-working, extremely talented creative team and a roster of stunning, intelligent young models who are all extremely personable. It’s a tight-knit family, and that unique company culture is a vital part of the studio’s success. When it comes to art direction and the construction of believable fantasy worlds, very few studios can match what Helix has been able to achieve.

Kink Men
Thanks to Kink’s success in the straight porn world and its one-of-a-kind facilities and infrastructure, the studio has been able to raise the bar for the entire gay fetish genre with its collection of award-winning gay sites. With talented director Van Darkholme at the helm, Kink works with many of the industry’s top performers and has created some of the decade’s most memorable gay fetish content. In a move that has now made Kink’s content more affordable and accessible than ever, the studio has brought together all six of it’s formerly independent gay porn sites under one network umbrella. When you join KinkMen, you get access to all six of Kink’s gay sites. It’s an incredible deal, and it’s material that you cannot find anywhere else.

Lucas Entertainment
Lucas Entertainment has been around for more than 15 years and it remains one of the industry’s best known brand names. Always evolving with the times to keep up with the changing tastes of porn fans, Lucas Entertainment has transitioned from being a studio known for it’s big-budget, on-location porn epics to being one of the most popular and explicit bareback studios. The incredible creativity and playfulness of those more epic gay porn days is not really gone, however. It still comes out to play now and then, as it did for the studio’s October 2016 release Barebackula.

Lucas Entertainment owner, director, and model Michael Lucas has become a household name right along with his studio. Intelligent and articulate, Michael Lucas has never been afraid to speak up when he feels strongly about an issue, whether it concerns porn, contemporary culture, or international politics. His articles and blog posts have occasionally been polarizing, but also extremely quotable. In his personal life, Michael is an easygoing and very likable guy with a soft spot for Dalida, and this quality of authentic charm has helped to make him a popular figure in New York’s mainstream social scene. Michael Lucas has hobnobbed with high society, had his legal battles plastered across the blogosphere, and been written about in New York’s gossip rags – which is basically the NYC equivalent of being knighted.

Men.com
Men.com operates a network of unique websites, but all of then are known for their high quality and for featuring some of the industry’s best talent.  The eight sites included in the Men.com network are Big Dicks at School, Str8 To Gay, Jizz Orgy, Top To Bottom, Drill My Hole, The Gay Office, Men of U.K., and Gods of Men. Each site is different, but it’s the Men.com brand that people tend to remember most. Men.com updates its sites every day and manages to maintain a steady stream of excellent content. In recent years, the studio has also produced a number of funny, impressive porn parodies.

Menatplay
Very few studios have carved out a whole new genre for themselves, but that’s exactly what Menatplay did with suit-and-tie porn. They then proceeded to capture it in a way that no other studio has yet been able to match. There are other good suit-and-tie porn sites out there, but none of them have a style as original and recognizable as Menatplay. Menatplay no longer limits itself exclusively to the suit-and-tie genre, but when porn fans think suits they think Menatplay.

NakedSword
When illegal file sharing and porn tube sites were first becoming a problem for the adult industry, many feared that the gay porn industry had no future – but Naked Sword proved them wrong. Rather than fighting the losing battle against piracy, Naked Sword set out to create an affordable, flat-fee streaming video service that would offer more content and a better user experience than any other streaming video site in the world. Naked Sword then negotiated deals with almost every major porn studio. By offering unlimited access to videos from nearly every big studio at a fair price, Naked Sword succeeded in creating a product that was more appealing than piracy. NakedSword has been called “The Netflix of gay porn,” and with good reason. The studio is now known for it’s own original, award-winning gay adult videos. In addition, NakedSword’s NSFW division now helps to produce and distribute cutting edge gay films that blur the line between mainstream film and pornography.

PLAYGIRL
This is the official membership site of Playgirl, the legendary company that has been bringing the world beautiful, masculine men for more than two decades. The Playgirl website is a favorite with many gay men and it offers a high quality, first class experience which includes  photos, videos, and some amazing extras. The site is also popular with women, and it’s strong brand recognition and long history continue to attract new fans.

Sean Cody
Founded in 2001, Sean Cody has become known not only for it’s hot videos featuring all American hunks, but also for the high profile scandals that have involved some of the site’s models. The website has a large and loyal fan base, and it’s a brand with which almost all gay porn fans are now familiar. The stunning amateur models at Sean Cody have always been a key part of the studio’s success. Fit and healthy-looking, these All-American jocks have a laid back, open-minded, hangup-free attitude that transcends traditional labels like gay and straight. The action at Sean Cody always feels authentic and you can tell that the models feel a real connection with one another, both physically and emotionally.

Titan Men
TitanMen has been producing award-winning, hardcore gay porn content for two decades. The studio is known for featuring the industry’s beefiest and most masculine models and for being the home of the world’s hottest jocks, daddies, and muscle studs. In recent years Titan Men has received a huge number of awards and award nominations and there’s no other studio quite like it.