STUDIOS' WEEKEND IS A BIT OF A STRETCH.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Every working stiff in America knows exactly how long a weekend lasts. Two days. Saturday and Sunday.

Unless, of course, the calendar gods smile and place a holiday on a Friday or Monday. Then the weekend is three days.

But in Hollywood's fantasy factory, a weekend can be three days or four days or five days or even six days, depending on when a studio decides to release a film.

For example, the upcoming Fourth of July weekend starts tonight, by Hollywood's way of thinking, with a sneak preview of Sony's ``Men in Black.'' That makes it a six-day weekend. Yippee.

And as the summer wears on to fall and winter, audiences can expect more and more long weekends, as studios release films earlier and earlier in the week to build good word-of-mouth and box office receipts.

``It's a tool to enhance the buzz and run up the numbers a little higher in the opening weekend fury and frenzy,'' said David Davis, an entertainment analyst with Houlihan, Lokey, Howard and Zukin, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm.

Davis calls it ``front-loading the gross,'' which means studios will try just about anything to fill up theaters in the opening weekend, including staging sneak previews to grab audience and media attention. The reason? A No. 1 spot at the box office is the best advertising a film can have.

Because the previews are limited, die-hard movie fans often line up for a ticket. That makes the film seem very special, says Davis.

Sony executives say lines of people outside a cinecomplex take a film from simply being a movie and turn it into an ``event.''

``On certain films that seem to have a real anticipation, it's become a fun thing to let them get out there in evening shows the night before the opening to help build the excitement,'' said Jeff Blake, distribution president for Sony Pictures Releasing.

Studios also are booking films into more and more theaters and on more and more screens. ``Men in Black'' will open in some 3,000 theaters and play on more than 5,000 screens, Blake said.

The strategy of longer opening weekends and increased theater bookings worked successfully for two previous blockbusters: ``Independence Day'' (which, like ``Men in Black'' featured Will Smith battling aliens) and ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park.''

Both films were previewed before the openings, both opened on an enormous number of screens. ``ID4'' held the record for hitting the $100 million mark faster than any other film until it was toppled in May by ``The Lost World.'' The space invaders epic also holds the record for highest pre-opening gross, $11.1 million.

But despite its colossal opening, ``The Lost World'' didn't have the legs of ``ID4,'' and suffered box office falloff in following weekends. That can hurt a film more than a poor opening, says media analyst Larry Gerbrandt of Paul Kagan and Associates.

Gerbrandt blames the second-weekend trail-off syndrome on an increasingly crowded movie schedule. With a new film opening every Friday, many films that suffer second-week drop-off disappear quickly from theaters to make room for other films.

It's hard to say for sure what movies will be temporarily bumped out of the way for tonight's ``Men in Black'' preview, or for that matter, disappear altogether once the actual weekend part of this ``weekend'' rolls around. Industry analyst John Krier of Exhibitor Relations said it will vary from theater to theater, depending on what hasn't been pulling its weight.

The somewhat disappointing performance of ``Batman and Robin'' in its second weekend could make it the fall guy. But don't count on it.

``I don't think Batman will come off,'' Krier said. ``It's not doing that badly. People expected more, that's for sure. But you don't take off a picture that is still doing $4 million or $5 million a day on the weekends.''

Three films that are likely to remain strong despite the arrival of ``Men in Black'' this weekend are ``Hercules,'' ``My Best Friend's Wedding'' and ``Face/Off,'' Krier said.

Ultimately, it's that sustainability that matters, not the length of the holiday weekend, according to analyst Gerbrandt.

``That's of more concern than how many days there are in the weekend,'' he said. Opening revenues are ``only important to people who try to compare things one year to the next. But for anything other than bragging rights the important number is sustainability.''

And how does a movie last in theaters? Good buzz, which gets back to the long weekend phenomenon.

``It's a good marketing ploy,'' says Krier. ``It creates a little extra attention.''