`DEEP IMPACT' HITS THEATERS LIKE A COMET.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Hollywood's summer season opened with a big bang when ``Deep Impact'' demolished the competition with a record-setting $41.9 million debut at 3,156 theaters nationwide during the Friday-Sunday period, studio sources said Sunday.

The comet-vs.-Earth disaster epic, laden with special effects, posted the highest take ever for a pre-Memorial Day weekend by beating the $41.1 million mark that ``Twister'' set two years ago. It overcame mixed reviews and benefited from a huge advertising campaign, news stories earlier this year about an asteroid that might collide with Earth and a lack of rival films aimed at the massive youth market.

``The other studios really cleared the decks for `Deep Impact,' '' said analyst Arthur Rockwell of Drake Capital Management. ``It should easily get past $100 million and probably will play well into the early summer.''

Starring Morgan Freeman and Tea Leoni, ``Deep Impact,'' carries an $80 million price tag with co-financing from Paramount and DreamWorks SKG. Paramount is handling distribution in the domestic market and DreamWorks is in charge of overseas, where business should be impressive, according to Rockwell.

Wayne Lewellen, Paramount's distribution chief, said there were two keys to the strong opening, which surpassed the studio's internal forecast.

``The marketing campaign was excellent and there had not been much competition,'' he said, ``so there may have been a lot of pent-up demand for something new.''

Lewellen reported strong results from exit polling and expects ``Deep Impact'' to dominate the box office next weekend, when its biggest rival will be Disney's opening of a Robert Redford romance, ``The Horse Whisperer.'' Sony's ``Godzilla'' is then expected to overwhelm everything else when it rolls out May 20.

The success of ``Deep Impact'' might cut into the potential take of a project with a similar theme that is scheduled to open in early July: Disney's ``Armageddon,'' in which an asteroid the size of Texas menaces the Earth.

The opening of ``Deep Impact'' clearly held down grosses for rivals. It took in more than eight times as much as the closest contender, ``City of Angels'' from Warner Bros., which grossed $4.7 million at 2,433 theaters on its fifth weekend - raising its total to nearly $62 million in 31 days.

For Warner, which has endured its worst stretch in recent memory, ``City of Angels'' has become the studio's biggest success since ``Space Jam'' in late 1996.

Last weekend's winner, Spike Lee's ``He Got Game,'' scored unimpressively in third with $3.8 million at 1,322 sites as its audience dwindled to half the size of that at its opening. Paramount's 21st weekend of ``Titanic'' followed with $3 million at 2,256 sites to lift its 143-day domestic total to $569.6 million.

``Titanic,'' now $108 million ahead of ``Star Wars'' as all-time domestic champion, lost only 25 percent of its audience from the previous weekend.

``Quality product - like `City of Angels' and `Titanic' - continues to track well,'' Rockwell said.

Sony's second weekend of ``Les Miserables,'' starring Liam Neeson, finished fifth with $2.7 million at 1,477 theaters, followed by DreamWorks' fourth weekend of ``Paulie'' with $2.6 million at 1,812 locations. Sony's third weekend of ``The Big Hit'' was next with $2.4 million at 2,149 sites.

New Line posted a lukewarm, eighth-place opening for ``Woo,'' a comedy-romance with Jada Pinkett Smith: $2.3 million at 617 theaters. Rockwell predicted the poorly reviewed project will disappear shortly.

Universal's action-adventure ``Black Dog'' followed in ninth with an unimpressive $2.15 million at 2,050 locations in its second weekend, giving it a mere $8.1 million after 10 days. Its poor performance underscores problems in the studio's film division, where there are rumors of more shake-ups to come after the recent round of executive dismissals by parent Seagram Co.

``The Object of My Affection'' from 20th Century Fox rounded out the top 10, with $2.13 million at 1,821 theaters. New Line's ``Lost in Space'' and Miramax's ``Sliding Doors'' were battling for 11th at $1.4 million each.

Miramax's opening of the costume-art drama ``Artemesia'' posted decent results: $34,000 from four theaters.

With ``Deep Impact'' accounting for more than half of domestic business, the weekend's results were significantly ahead of those on the same weekend last year, when ``The Fifth Element'' opened with $17 million and ``Father's Day'' followed at $8.8 million.

TOP MOVIES

Here are estimated grosses of the top movies at North American theaters for Friday through Sunday:

1. ``Deep Impact,'' $41.9 million.

2. ``City of Angels,'' $4.7 million.

3. ``He Got Game,'' $3.8 million.

4. ``Titanic,'' $3 million.

5. ``Les Miserables,'' $2.7 million.

6. ``Paulie,'' $2.6 million.

7. ``The Big Hit,'' $2.4 million.

8. ``Woo,'' $2.3 million.

9. ``Black Dog,'' $2.15 million.

10. ``The Object of My Affection,'' $2.13 million.

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