Not about the movies, about the theater biz

Leila Navidi

Beverage technician Don Stoker of Coca-Cola tends to the fountain machine Monday during setup at Bally’s for ShoWest. which runs through Thursday.

By Joe Brown (contact)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Leila Navidi

Cheese-dispensing technology from Germantown, Wis., is on display at the Gehl foods booth. Exhibitors come from just about everywhere but Hollywood.

The movie business is all about getting butts in the seats. Your butt, their seat. Ten dollars, please.

But at the film industry’s biggest convention, it’s all about the seats. And the screens. And the snacks.

Now in its 34th year, ShoWest is the most prestigious and longest-running event exclusively for the cinema exhibition and distribution community. More than 5,000 motion picture industry professionals are expected to attend the trade show, which continues through Thursday at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.

The movie masterminds have your summer already planned out (and next summer, and a big chunk of the summer after that). A stroll through the ShoWest convention floor affords a pretty good idea of what we’re going to see on screens in Las Vegas well into August. And what we’re going to munch and dip and slurp and gnaw. And how cushy our tushies will be in those customized, sculpted, embroidered chairs.

Tonight at Planet Hollywood, ShoWest showcases the world premiere of “21,” which was filmed at several Las Vegas locations (including Planet Hollywood). Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne and other cast members are expected to stroll the red carpet before the film, which is about how MIT computer students, drilled in card counting, took Vegas casinos for millions. The movie opens nationwide March 28.

The movie folks also give each other awards, of course (they thoughtfully announce the winners ahead of time — mostly so the winners will be more likely to show up). Honorees at Thursday night’s banquet include Abigail Breslin and Emile Hirsch (Female and Male Star of Tomorrow), and somehow, “Mummy”-man Brendan Fraser Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film). Must be that showing-up thing.

But unlike most movie-related events, ShoWest isn’t really about movie stars — they’re trotted out as decoration, catnip, perks for the attendees. This expo is about the behind-the-scenes people, suppliers of the constellation of ancillary products that create the moviegoing experience, from “high-expansion” popcorn (the HD of popcorn?) and electronic movie posters to automated point-of-sale ticket kiosks and the latest in digital projection equipment.

And they come to Las Vegas from just about everywhere but Hollywood:

You’ve got your Red Vines, which come from Bend, Ore. “Eco-friendly” popcorn containers from Chicago. Seriously cushy black leather rocking seats with chrome cup holders from Byron Center, Mich. Nacho dispensers (“Push here for cheese”) from Germantown, Wis. Dippin’ Dots (“the ice cream of the future”) from Paducah, Ky. Hollywood Movie Money (promotional movie tickets) from Incline Village. And crispy Lava Bars and Chocolate Bullet toffies, all the way from Iceland.

This is where the movie studios show off trailers for their wannabe summer blockbusters, hoping to get theater owners pumped up to push this season’s product. Wander the maze of convention center cubicles and halls and you’ll get a premonition of what your air-conditioned summer is going to look like: Mike Myers will be inescapable in “The Love Guru.” Ditto for Disney/Pixar’s animated robot star of “Wall-E.” You will buy tickets for “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” “Iron Man,” “Speed Racer,” “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” and “Kung Fu Panda,” among others.

Ready yourself for an onslaught of 3-D movies, including “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D,” “Bolt,” “Coraline” and “Horrorween 3-D” (it’s already looking as if every summer flick in 2009 will have a third dimension).

Judging solely by the sheer quantity of souvenir T-shirts and babywear on display, the animated Jim Carrey/Steve Carrell-voiced Dr. Seuss adaptation “Horton Hears a Who” looks likely to be huge.

After years of concern about slumping box office receipts, the official 2008 watchword at ShoWest seems to be “optimism.” Box office sales were up 5.4 percent from 2006 to 2007, reported National Association of Theatre Owners President and Chief Executive John Fithian, who acknowledged that inflation played a part — the average 2007 ticket price was $6.88, up 5 percent, slightly more than the consumer price index, which climbed 3.9 percent in the same period.

But with portable players and watch-at-home options such as DVD and on-demand still ascendant, the landscape for mind and market share is more competitive than ever, so movie theater owners and operators show up at Sho-

West schmoozefests to compare notes on the latest products, services and technologies. Digital conversion remains a big topic, but a lot of the chatter at this year’s seminars and receptions revolved around “alternative programming,” which means simulcast operas and NASCAR races, concert films, and especially those 3-D movies — basically anything that can get people to buy tickets during off-hours and downtime at movie theaters.

Still, as seen from the ShoWest floor, the bedrock of the movie business remains concessions and confections — in a word, candy. On Monday afternoon, technicians were still installing booths and the floor, and Coca-Cola was painstakingly arranging several soft drinks as if they were supermodels readying for a photo shoot. And the Nestle showcase was a fantasy right out of “Willy Wonka,” haphazard mountains of open, unguarded boxes of Nerds and SweeTarts, Goobers and Dark Raisinets.

Here it is, our prediction for Snack of the Summer 2008: Nesquik chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk — a low-fat, noncarbonated, “mom-friendly” movie snack with a shelf life of 180 days without refrigeration.