`RUGRATS' FRANCHISE COULD POSE CREDIBLE CHALLENGE TO DISNEY.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

``Rugrats: The Movie'' has become the first non-Disney animated movie to take in $100 million in domestic ticket receipts, becoming the 13th member of an elite and extremely profitable club.

Paramount, which released the $25 million Klasky/Csupo production in November, announced Monday that ``Rugrats'' had grossed $328,545 at 403 theaters over the weekend to go past $100.1 million after 122 days in release. What it means is the 8-year-old Nickelodeon cable show has established itself as an ongoing money-maker for parent Viacom Inc. through sequels, toys, videos and theatrical productions.

``Its tremendous performance at the box office has launched a new movie franchise which thoroughly complements the highly successful Nickelodeon TV series,'' said Paramount distribution chief Wayne Lewellen.

Even though the cable show draws 24 million viewers weekly, the movie's prospects were uncertain because the style represented a departure from classic Disney animation.

``We're very gratified that there's acceptance for alternative animation,'' said Albie Hecht, president of Nickelodeon Film and TV Entertainment. ``We've taken a very contemporary approach.''

``Rugrats'' begins its foreign roll-out this week. ``I'm bullish about overseas because it's a very universal movie,'' Hecht said. ``The Rugrats already speak 17 languages on the TV shows. Everyone sees themselves in the Rugrats.''

``Rugrats'' is the most successful of challenges to Disney's status as king of animation, where each domestic box office dollar represents as much as $4 of profit once the ancillary products are factored in. Just in the past half-year, DreamWorks' ``Antz'' and ``Prince of Egypt'' have generated combined grosses of close to $190 million, but Warner Bros. stumbled with ``The King and I,'' taking only $4 million on its opening weekend.

Nickelodeon is at work on a pair of animated projects - a ``Rugrats'' sequel expected to be released November 2000 and the fantasy-adventure ``Bone,'' due in 2001. It employs more than 300 animators working at its Nickelodeon animation studio in Burbank on five TV series and movie projects.

Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, in a speech to Wall Street analysts last month, stressed the value of the Nickelodeon brand and pledged that the division would release one animated movie per year starting in 2000.

``It's a challenge for us because we don't really have a house style so we reinvent ourselves every time out,'' Hecht said.

Viacom investor Marvin Roffman, principal of Roffman Miller Associates of Philadelphia, endorsed the commitment to animation. ``There's tremendous potential to create a franchise that translates all over the world,'' he said.

For its part, Disney has high hopes for its animated ``Tarzan,'' due June 18. Its last project, ``A Bug's Life,'' performed in line with expectations with U.S. grosses near $160 million.