World Sex Sells News

The Beverley sex cinema has held out for decades as Paris's sole pornographic movie theatre, proudly yet discreetly offering non-stop showings of films from the 1970s and 80s.

But rising rents and changing social mores have finally caught up and the cinema's fans have just a few days left to pick up memorabilia from a symbol of a bygone Paris. After the final screening last Saturday -- the traditional couples night -- owner Maurice Laroche is remaining on site this week to sell films, posters, seats and whatever else is left.

Laroche, who had managed the Beverley since 1983 before buying it 10 years later, said that at 75 he was ready to retire to the ocean resort town of Royan in southwest France. His clients have become fewer as they've gotten older in recent years -- most recently he had been selling less than 500 12-euro tickets a week, compared with 1,500 twenty years ago.

In its heyday, around 1975, there were over 900 cinemas specialising in pornography in France. Just six years later, there were only 90, French film journalist Jacques Zimmer told AFP.  According to France's national cinema council only one X-rated cinema now remains in France, the Vox in Grenoble.

Thousands of convenience stores in Japan will stop selling pornographic magazines. Both Lawson Inc. and 7-Eleven Japan Co. announced earlier this week that the retail companies plan to stop selling pornography in their stores, which combined included nearly 34,000 locations in Japan.

The 7-Eleven stores will phase out the explicit material by August. The transition will take place ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

A spokesperson for 7-Eleven Japan Co. told Reuters that the stores, previously patronized mostly by men, have developed in recent years to become more family oriented.