2001: BOX OFFICE GOLD PATRIOTISM DROVE BOON, MPAA LEADER SAYS.

Byline: Jerry Rice Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - Patriotism helped fuel the biggest year in movie attendance since the height of the Cold War, Motion Picture Association President Jack Valenti said Tuesday.

``There was a confirmation that Americans, even in a time that tries their souls, will not be cabined and confined in their homes,'' Valenti said in a speech at ShoWest, the official convention of the National Association of Theater Owners.

The actions of millions of theatergoers countered dire predictions of Hollywood's standing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``There were those who, with visible despondency, predicted that theaters would soon empty, that Americans would shun the movie experience and stay home to nurse their raw and abused nerve edges,'' Valenti said. ``But that did not happen.''

Instead, moviegoers in North America went in record numbers. Nearly 1.5 billion tickets were sold - the most since 1959 and a 5 percent increase over 2000 - and they forked out $8.41 billion to go to the movies.

Valenti's state-of-the-industry remarks came before an audience of movie theater operators and managers at the Paris Las Vegas hotel, and was a definite change in tone from a year ago, when many of the exhibitors were still in financial doldrums and a dozen of the chains were striving to recover from bankruptcy.

``We had our recession before the country did,'' John Fithian, president of the association, added during the presentation. ``Companies emerging from the bankruptcy process are leaner and meaner.''

What sent the industry in a downward spiral in the 1990s was building too many multiplexes and giant megaplexes with amenities like stadium seating, while still paying the rent on locations that moviegoers abandoned in favor of the new cinemas.

Movie ticket admissions may have climbed by 31 percent during the decade but the number of screens (and associated costs) was up 41 percent during that time, Fithian said.

``We will always need to build new theaters - but carefully,'' he said.

Southern California is already seeing a resurgence in new theater activity. Locations have opened or are planned for a number of cities including Burbank, due to get a 16-plex from AMC Entertainment Inc.; a Pacific Theatres 14-screen ArcLight adjacent to the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, which opens later this month and boasts reserved seating; and another multiplex in the Farmers Market area of Los Angeles.

``Instead of building a theater anywhere, companies are finally stepping back and saying, Hey, where does it make sense?,'' said Alan Grossberg, president and CEO of San Diego-based UltraStar Cinemas.

At ShoWest, Valenti and Fithian both offered praise for the MPAA's movie rating system, but said there is room at the theater level to improve enforcement of the G, PG, PG-13 and R ratings.

The MPAA's Internet site, www.filmratings.com, receives about 180,000 visitors a month, and Valenti said 78 percent of parents with children 12 and younger found the ratings to be very or fairly useful.

``That's a huge parental endorsement,'' Valenti said. ``It plainly says that parents like and trust what we are offering them.''

Also on the family front, Fithian said 17 of the 20 films last year that topped the $100 million box-office milestone (``The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring,'' ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' ``Shrek'' and ``Monsters, Inc.'' among them) came with a PG-13 or even less restrictive rating.

His message to Hollywood studios: ``Keep giving us family fare and we'll keep selling tickets.''

Movies tend to be a pocketbook issue for people when they are deciding how to spend their free time, Valenti said. ``Prices for all other events are wildly disproportionate to a theater ticket - anywhere from three times to 10 times higher,'' he said.

In addition to serving as a platform for studios to show off their summer releases, ShoWest plays an increasingly larger role in the Oscar derby. Several of the big honorees - most notably Ron Howard (the convention's Director of the Year), Will Smith (Male Star of the Year), actress Nicole Kidman (Decade of Achievement in Film) and ``Gosford Park'' scripter Julian Fellowes (Screenwriter of the Year) - are also Academy Award nominees.

ShoWest wraps Thursday, when it will fete those and others in the business, including Steven Spielberg who will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for a career that boasts movies that have earned more than $10.5 billion in ticket sales worldwide.

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Photo:

Film producer Jerry Weintraub, right, introduces Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti at the ShoWest theater owners convention in Las Vegas.

Joe Cavaretta/Associated Press