Seagal Powers Holiday Weekend : Box office: An estimated $80 million in receipts puts this Presidents Day Weekend 10% ahead of last year.

Led by a hefty $14-million gross for Steven Seagal’s “On Deadly Ground” and despite strong viewer competition from the Winter Olympics on CBS-TV, the movie business earned a gold medal of its own during the Presidents Day Weekend.

Film industry sources estimated that the Friday-through-Monday holiday weekend would produce slightly more than $80 million in ticket sales, or about 10% more than the same holiday weekend a year ago.

“It’s the best weekend of the year so far, and that’s despite the high ratings for the Olympics. Not everyone watches the games and even those who do can still grow tired after a while,” said John Krier of Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks box-office data.

One indication of the robustness of the business is the rare situation for a winter weekend that three films--”On Deadly Ground,” “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “Blue Chips”--topped $10 million in ticket sales each.

The high grosses were a sharp contrast to a weekend earlier, when arctic-like weather shut down much of the eastern United States, affecting about 25% of the box office.

About $25 million of the $80-million Presidents Day Weekend total belongs to two Warner Bros. movies, “On Deadly Ground” and the weekend’s No. 2 film, the strong-showing children’s comedy “Ace Ventura.”

With $14 million estimated for the long weekend on 2,010 screens, “On Deadly Ground,” an environmentally themed action film in which Seagal not only stars but makes his directing debut, landed in first place by a long shot. But, as strong an opening weekend as that is, the action hero’s biggest opening remains 1992’s “Under Siege,” which also collected $14 million, during a regular Friday-through-Sunday weekend.

Ranked second is “Ace Ventura, Pet Detective,” starring Jim Carrey, from Fox-TV’s “In Living Color.” The film, which cost Morgan Creek Productions $12 million to produce, grossed $10.5 million during the most recent weekend on 1,923 screens, bringing its total after only three weekends of release to $38 million.

Barry Reardon, Warner Bros.’ president of distribution, said he is surprised about the extent of the movie’s box-office appeal. “It’s drawing the kids, and that’s the main thing,” he said. “There’s a lot of repeat business.”

The Nick Nolte basketball drama, “Blue Chips,” and a ‘90s twentysomething romantic comedy, “Reality Bites,” scored three and four, respectively, in their debut weekends.

“Blue Chips,” from Paramount Pictures, grossed $10.1 million on 1,910 screens. But at only 1,149 locations, Universal Pictures’ “Reality Bites,” with Ben Stiller, Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, grossed an estimated $6.5 million.

Walt Disney Pictures’ “Blank Check” drew $6.1 million on 1,732 screens, for fifth place.

Rounding out the Top 10 are “Schindler’s List,” with $5 million (and $42 million to date); “Mrs. Doubtfire,” with $4.9 million ($193 million to date); “My Girl 2,” with $4.8 million on 1,853 screens; “My Father, the Hero,” $4.4 million on 1,363 screens, and “Philadelphia,” $4.3 million on 1,449 screens ($56.1 million to date).