Local Hispanic-Americans decide Hollywood speaks their language.

Spanish-language cinema is dying in Los Angeles, and Hollywood is the major beneficiary. Hispanics in Los Angeles are going to the movies in droves this summer to see America's action films "Jurassic Park" and "In The Line of Fire."

There is not a single Mexican- or Latin American-made movie playing in the Broadway movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles, the movie mecca for urban Latinos. Currently, "Jurassic Park" and "In The Line of Fire" are playing in four of the five single-screen movie palaces on Broadway, with Spanish subtitles offered in three of the five. The other cinemas offer films without subtitles or dubbing.

Metropolitan Theatres Corp. operates all the Broadway cinemas and specializes in Hispanic neighborhoods, with a total of 75 screens in Southern California.

"Our business will be up about 15 percent this summer, primarily because our customers want action and Hollywood has delivered it," said Bruce Corwin, Metropolitan's president. "They don't want 'Sleepless in Seattle' or 'Hocus Pocus,' but films like 'Jurassic Park' and 'The Fugitive.'"

Corwin said he has witnessed a dramatic shift in L.A.'s Hispanic market over the last five years. In July 1963, Metropolitan started showing Spanish-language films in the Los Angeles area. Those were made mostly in Mexico and for 25 years the Corwin family's Beverly Hills-based chain was able to remain profitable showing these imports.

However, a shift to Hollywood fare with Spanish subtitles started five years ago and has now pushed Mexican films out of the market.

Theater owners like Corwin said there has been a decline in the Mexican film industry coupled with changing attitudes of Mexican-Americans who want the special effects and big-bang action that America does best.

There have been a few quality Mexican films lately that have played well to general audiences, such as "El Mariachi" and "Like Water for Chocolate." But overall, there is a dearth of films coming out of Mexico that appeal to today's young Hispanics in the Southland.

The Mexican movie stars of yesteryear, like Cantinflas and Maria Felix, have not been replaced by a new generation, Corwin said. And besides, Mexican-American teenagers would rather see an American icon like Clint Eastwood.

Metropolitan's chief competition, Pacific Theatres Corp., has 12 screens in heavily Hispanic Southern California neighborhoods and currently has only two Mexican-made films up on its screens.

Major movie studios were slow to recognize the trend, but are now increasing marketing efforts to reach more Hispanics locally and nationally. According to statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America, Hispanics now represent 13 percent of the total domestic film audience, compared with almost nothing six years ago.

With Hollywood expected to crack the $5 billion mark in ticket sales this year, Hispanics can be expected to provide at least $600 million, or 12 percent, of that total. In the U.S., Hispanics comprise 10 percent of the total population.

However, in Los Angeles, they make up roughly 33 percent and are projected to account for 50 percent of the population early in the next century.

No figures were available for overall Hispanic contributions to the Los Angeles area box office, but it's certain to be a higher percentage than for the national box office. Among the films that have scored big with Los Angeles Hispanics in the last few years were "Home Alone," "Ghost" and "Unforgiven."

Action films are the most popular, while dramas and romantic comedies are the least successful.

Hispanics tend to make the movies a family outing, but they often pay less for their tickets. In Los Angeles, the Broadway cinemas catering to mostly Latinos are less pricey than the suburban multiplexes.

While cinemas on the Westside are charging $7.50 for a ticket to see "In the Line of Fire," the same film could be viewed last week at the Los Angeles theater on Broadway for $6, with two other features thrown in. "Sniper" and "Death Warrant" were part of the triple feature.

The Los Angeles theater was built in 1931 by Charlie Chaplin and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It has four spectacular chandeliers in its lobby.

Broadway was L.A.'s movie capital in the 1940s and 1950s, when the area boasted a dozen first-run cinemas. Today, three of those palaces have been converted to swap meets, two to churches and two are vacant. The growth of shopping mall cinema multiplexes and Westwood all but killed Broadway, theater owners said.

Alan Dinwiddie, vice president for special markets at Buena Vista Pictures Marketing, said focus group research has shown that Hispanics want to see big-star films and Spanish subtitles don't make a difference. But many young Latinos speak English, and Buena Vista, the marketing arm of Walt Disney Co., has decided not to issue its films with subtitles in the U.S.

"I have gone to these theaters on weekends and watched mothers and their children attending," Dinwiddie observed. "The mother will have her child explain to her what is happening. Many Hispanic parents are using the movies as the tool to bridge the cultures."

The Hispanic media in Los Angeles have been getting a small slice of Hollywood's ad budget.

La Opinion, Los Angeles' major Spanish-language daily newspaper, has been getting quarter-page ads paid in part by the major studios for certain films.

"We get the quarter-page ads with some frequency, but you don't see the double-truck (page) ads that you see in the L.A. Times," said Claudette LaCour, the newspaper's vice president of sales and marketing. "We are pursuing this (movie ads) aggressively because our readers enjoy it."

KMEX-TV Channel 34, one of Los Angeles' three Spanish-language television stations, has been successful in getting Buena Vista and Warner Bros. to buy air time to promote their movies. But it has not garnered full participation from all the studios.

Leticia Garcia, the station's account executive, pointed out that four of the five top-grossing films in Los Angeles in the fall of 1992 (including "Passenger 57" and "Under Siege") all advertised substantially on KMEX.

But two big-budget films that weren't advertised on Spanish-language television, "Last of the Mohicans" and "Sneakers," did not make it onto L.A.'s top-five list because they weren't advertised to 33 percent of the Los Angeles population, Garcia said.