SONY LIGHTS CONVENTION WITH STARS.

Byline: Marla Matzer Rose Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - The stars came out Wednesday at Showest, the annual convention for movie theater owners and operators.

Sony Entertainment hosted lunch on the third day of the four-day confab and brought along such stars as Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt Damon, Cameron Diaz, Bill Murray and Sandra Bullock to promote their upcoming movies. The celebrities added glitz to a conference that is more business than show business.

Theater owners seemed high on Gibson's summer release, ``The Patroit.'' The trailer for the revolutionary war film, full of action and combat, played to the biggest applause among the several thousand exhibitors in attendance.

Schwarzenegger's ``Six Days,'' a drama about a human clone, also received a warm response, as did a very brief look at the fall release of ``Charlie's Angels,'' a film version of the '70s TV jiggle show. The angels this time around are Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu.

Greeted with less enthusiasm was ``Godzilla 2000,'' which apparently marks a return to the monster's cheesy Japanese roots. The movie is a joint presentation of Sony and Japan's Toho Corp.

Fans of the old Godzilla and high camp may take heart though: This is the original rubbery and slightly clunky Godzilla, not the streamlined and soulless lizard of the American movie of two years ago.

Exhibitors seemed thrilled by the announcement of sequels to ``Men in Black'' and ``Stuart Little,'' despite a lack of any footage to see. Coming off a lackluster 1999 and early 2000 - Sony's Garry Shandling comedy ``What Planet Are You From?'' had the worst wide opening of any movie this year - Sony appears to have a strong slate going into 2000.

In the exhibit halls, the main buzz was about digital film projection.

It seems clear that theaters will be receiving and projecting films digitally on a regular basis within a few years, rather than showing film on reels. The main questions that remain are how quickly it will happen, which companies will dominate and who will pay for it all.

Theater owners balk at the idea of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new equipment when the studios could effect significant savings by not having to pay for prints and distribution.

Another thing seems clear: Not only are ticket prices going up, but moviegoers are going to be targets of more and more marketing when they plunk down their money at the box office.

On Tuesday, Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, revealed that ticket prices in 1999 rose by more than 13 percent.

Movie posters will start to be replaced by interactive lobby screens that show trailers, posters and commercials for other products.

Makers of kiosks that spit out tailored coupons, in exchange for information on who you are and what you are watching, were getting a lot of interest on the trade show floor.

Why? Theater owners are looking for more ways to make money and attract repeat business, and patrons don't seem to mind as long as there is something in it for them.