It’s difficult to stage a comeback when you never really went anywhere.
Despite of a consistent release schedule, not much has been heard about Coast to Coast Video lately. The 21-year-old production company, founded by Martin Rothstein, was developed as a companion line to his Model Distributors, one of the oldest adult video and magazine wholesalers in the country.
Coast to Coast has just released two excellent plot-based titles, just when the feature market seemed to be in decline. July’s release Wild Things on the Run, a sexy farce starring Gia Paloma and Violet Blue, garners a Spotlight Pick in AVN’sSeptember issue, and the August comedy 30 Days in the Hole, directed by Jace Rocker and starring Lauren Phoenix, earns the company an Editor’s Choice in the upcoming October issue.
“We always make good movies but we don’t have a big sales department, so we have other distribution channels like cable and foreign,” Rothstein said. “Everything we do is broadcast on thePlayboy Channel.”
In addition, based on the demands of satellite television, the company has begun shooting in high-definition, anticipating the emerging market.
“Two of the first three high definition films are running on Playboy already and we’re preparing the DVDs on all three,” Rothstein stated. “They’re all part of our Loose Morals series.”
“You can’t be everything to everyone,” producer/director Wil Divide added, “and I think Coast is sort of in the middle, where we do sort of fun, gonzo, hot movies and then we do feature movies. But we try to make them all a little bit different.”
Coast to Coast came out of the late 1980s as one of the premier companies of the video age, known for such big-selling series as Cheeks, Best Butte in the West, Kittens, Rainwoman and the original Pussyman series, created by David Christopher. It was Christopher, in fact, who ran Coast to Coast in New York in its infancy, before heading West to pursue his life as Pussyman.
“I spent eight great years working with Martin and Will in that unforgettable location in downtown Manhattan,” Christopher mused. “We worked closely together and in a couple of years we became the fourth largest video company in the adult industry. The movies, the packaging, the relationships, it was all there. But like everyone else in the New York porn scene, I had to go West. Nothing makes me happier than knowing Coast to Coast continues to be a force. It’s always been about quality movies featuring glamorous women, gorgeous costumes and red-hot sex.”
Rothstein has fond memories of the early days as well. “Coast opened up in December, 1983, with two titles,” he reminisced. “We sold 6,000 pieces at $32 wholesale. Where did all the money go?”
Rothstein says that AVN’s assessment that Coast to Coast Video is undergoing a resurgence may be stretching the issue. “We’ve been doing good movies all along, but we stay under the radar,” he said, “I like to golf, take weekends off, not work so hard.
“I see all the movies because I buy from everybody [for Model Distributors]. I don’t like the double anals, cum eaters, gapers, things like that. I don’t want to make them harder and harder with stretched butts. We always did the stories, more like Vivid and VCA.”
But one reason Coast to Coast may been under AVN’s radar is that the revelation that they have been sending screening copies to AVN’s old Venice Boulevard address in Los Angeles, a location AVN moved from in 1996.
“Somebody’s been signing for all our packages over there,” one Coast to Coast warehouse employee offered, laughing. “So they must have a really nice collection of our stuff.”
Other recent and upcoming titles from Coast to Coast include Cheeks 14, Latex Cops, Girls in Charge, Loose Morals in the Street and Loose Morals V.
Wholesalers or retailers can reach the company at 800.221.3420.
