At ShoWest It’s Sell! Sell! Sell! : Movies: The trade convention is not Cannes or Sundance, where art and the artist are celebrated. It’s about big business--the bigger the better.

When you enter an ornate hotel banquet room and receive greetings from a human-size M&M;, it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to be a normal business convention.

Even the human visitors are large or larger than life. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped by on Tuesday for lunch. Still to come: Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts and Clint Eastwood.

The reason for all this candy and star power is the annual trade convention known as ShoWest--a meeting of Hollywood film companies, the people who exhibit the movies, as well as the merchants of popcorn, soda, candy and theater equipment. This week’s convention has drawn more than 6,000 persons to Bally’s Casino-Resort, including representatives of 30 other nations.

This is not the Cannes Film Festival or even Sundance, where art and the artist are celebrated. ShoWest is about commerce--and the bigger the better.

The major studios send a number of their top executives and spend anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million on “product reels,” or a series of trailers of their films, in an effort to promote them and get the best possible theater bookings.

The biggest expectations for this summer are resting on Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” and Columbia Pictures’ “Last Action Hero,” starring Schwarzenegger. But there will be previews of dozens of other movies from little-known Gecko Films, which this summer will release its first movie, “River of Stone,” to TriStar Pictures, which will plug the Carolco Films action film production, “Cliffhanger” starring Sylvester Stallone.

“They always pump us up with these trailers that look great,” said Robert Rauschenbach, a frequent ShoWest visitor, who owns a twin-screen theater in Forest Hills, N.Y. “But as good as they look, we can still get stuck with a Christmas season clunker. The best trailers can mean the worst films.”

But Rauschenbach, like many other exhibitors from around the country, is optimistic about the theatrical exhibition business. There is a feel-good atmosphere in the wake of the nearly $5-billion year at the North American box office in 1992--the third best on record. Ticket grosses so far in 1993 are running about 3% higher than this time last year, according to statistics from Los Angeles-based Entertainment Data Inc.

With grosses so much on the mind of these conventioneers, it was no surprise that the 13 most recent films to surpass the $100-million mark at the domestic box office were greeted as conquering heroes as the convention opened. Entertainment Data and the candy giant M&M;/Mars presented “Gold Reel” awards to “Aladdin,” “Basic Instinct,” “A Few Good Men,” “A League of Their Own,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Sister Act,” “The Addams Family,” “Hook,” “Wayne’s World,” “Lethal Weapon 3,” “Batman Returns,” “Home Alone 2” and “The Bodyguard.”

“Basic Instinct,” the R-rated sexual thriller with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, was named the biggest international box office hit of 1992 with a gross of $360 million worldwide.

All of this of course was enough to put theater exhibitors in a party mood. On Tuesday, Columbia Pictures hailed its movie lineup at a luncheon featuring Schwarzenegger and then gave the visitors a preview of “Last Action Hero” excerpts. Later, Columbia’s parent company Sony plugged its new sound system called SDDS, which is said to bring the sound quality of compact discs to movie theaters. The company hopes the system will rival industry leader Dolby digital sound.

Meanwhile, Universal Pictures is showing off its new digital sound system known as DTS, which will be available to theaters for the first time with the release in June of “Jurassic Park.” In addition, Universal created a “dinosaur park environment” as a way to drum up excitement. It was a hush-hush event for a select group of exhibitors--which miffed the uninvited.

Tuesday night, New Line Cinema was scheduled to preview its lineup, including the return of its popular turtles, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III--Back in Time.” Leslie Nielsen was on hand for “Surf Ninjas” and New Line also brought in heartthrob Luke Perry to promote the upcoming “The Lane Frost Story.”

As the four-day convention continues, there was talk that “Cliffhanger” star Stallone might drop by the convention to underscore the sales effort. Among other films on the TriStar lineup are trailers of the romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” and the AIDS drama, “Philadelphia.”

Tonight’s dinner will feature Paramount Pictures’ film clips of the psychosexual mystery “Sliver,” starring Sharon Stone, and “The Firm,” starring Tom Cruise. Conventioneers are also talking about two Paramount sequels: “Addams Family Values” and “Wayne’s World 2.”

Warner Bros. hosts a luncheon Thursday and plans to give the exhibitors a taste of its upcoming “Dennis the Menace” and a new version of “Body Snatchers,” among many other movies.

In addition to the big box-office drawing stars, the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, ShoWest sponsor, is honoring veteran stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and George Kennedy. “Stars of Tomorrow” honors will go to Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis.

How much good will this Hollywood-style hoopla promotes among the exhibitors is anyone’s guess. Landmark Theaters president Steve Gilula, said ShoWest began as a theater-owner’s event. “But it’s no longer a party for exhibitors; it’s also an opportunity for the studios to get the word out on their films. More and more, you’re seeing a lot of press here.”

On Tuesday, conventioneers heard upbeat remarks from keynote speaker Mark Canton, the Columbia Pictures chairman, and Motion Picture Assn. of America president Jack Valenti.

Canton said that a survey sponsored by the studio indicated the public’s major concern about moviegoing is with theater presentation, which includes sound or picture quality. In remarks aimed at the production side of the business, he said: “Too often commercial movies are never meant to be any good at all. We must change this--and we are. I’m not suggesting that everything we make should satisfy the cultural elite. We still need a mix of cappuccino films and popcorn movies. But even our popcorn movies must aspire to quality.”

Canton said audience tastes indicate a PG-rated movie (parental guidance suggested) is apt to make $100 million at three times the rate of those movies rated R (restricted to children). “And yet, as an industry, we are making more R-rated films than ever: 58%.”

Valenti reported that despite the arrival of video recorders, movie attendance has remained relatively stable in the last 15 years. In 1992, he said, there were 964.2 million tickets sold, or 5.6% below 1980. The VCR revolution has “built a totally new audience in the home, more than doubling the size of the movie audience.”

On the other hand, the average number of films seen by moviegoers per year continued to fall. In 1985, moviegoers saw 8.4 films per year; in 1992, they saw 5.7. Moviegoers are defined as people who see at least one movie a year.

Valenti said the major studios released 141 movies during 1992 that cost an average of $28.8 million, up a bit from the year earlier. Add in marketing, advertising and print costs and the average film cost $40 million, up 5% from 1991.

Valenti said the fastest growing moviegoing group in the United States is Latinos, who account for 13% of admissions. Blacks make up 12% of the audience, whites 71% and all others 4%.

He said the over-40 age group increased from 14.2% of the movie audience in 1985 to 30.4% in 1992.