Disaster Coming on Two Fronts

Hold on to your seats. The Earth is about to be hit not only by a streaking comet, but also by a streaking asteroid the size of Texas. At least, those are the doomsday scenarios painted in “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon,” two heavily hyped sci-fi movies coming soon to a theater near you. As Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures prepare to roll out “Deep Impact” this Friday, will moviegoers experience deja vu by the time “Armageddon” debuts over the Fourth of July holiday? Consider: In “Deep Impact,” a spaceship crew headed by Robert Duvall undertakes a desperate mission to land on the surface of a comet and plant nuclear charges in hopes of either breaking up the comet or changing its orbit. In Disney’s “Armageddon,” a team of oil drillers headed by Bruce Willis undertakes a desperate mission to land on an asteroid’s surface and plant explosives to divert it from its collision course with Earth. The studios have sought to differentiate their movies in the public mind, but each say their films deliver much more than thrill rides--they also tug at emotions. The studios have also sought the advice of the scientific community to buttress the point that Earth could be imperiled someday by comets or asteroids. Paramount, for instance, recently held a “Deep Impact” press junket at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, while Disney is planning to hold the premiere for “Armageddon” at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Despite the similarities, the studios believe both films can thrive. “There’s room in the marketplace for both of them,” said a Disney spokeswoman. “Any interest they create in their movie for the subject matter is a down payment for us. Eight weeks [between releases] is a huge distance in terms of playing time.” Perhaps. Last year, two other studios came out with big-budget movies that featured rampaging lava, but when the volcanic ash had settled, “Dante’s Peak” earned $67.1 million domestically, while “Volcano,” which opened about 2 1/2 months later, took in a disappointing $47.1 million.

Telemundo Aims for Younger Viewers

Telemundo, which has seen its ratings against Spanish-language rival Univision decline by more than half in the last five years, is hoping to arrest that slide by attracting younger bilingual viewers with a series of new programs that network officials say are more “culturally relevant” for U.S. Latinos. The first begins today with the premiere of “Al Dia Con Maria Conchita,” a one-hour daily afternoon variety show hosted by crossover personality Maria Conchita Alonso. (The program will air at 2 p.m. locally on KVEA-TV Channel 52.) Taped before a live studio audience in Hollywood, the premiere episode features Salma Hayek, another actress who has become a star in both English and Spanish. Future guests will include actresses Daisy Fuentes and Maria Canals; actors Esai Morales and Edward James Olmos; Miss Universe Brook Lee and supermodel Patricia Velasquez--all personalities better known for their work in English. The dialogue on the shows will primarily be in Spanish, although there are Spanglish and English words sprinkled throughout. “There is a huge difference in perspective in terms of looking at the viewers as being bicultural,” says Telemundo CEO Roland Hernandez. “As a bilingual viewer, you have an ability to choose the [Spanish or English] shows you think are more relevant. We want to make sure that we can grab those teenagers and those kids and the whole family.” The new Telemundo series follows a similar venture by Galavision, which has experimented with two English-language shows on the otherwise all-Spanish cable channel.

Billy Ray, Your Record May Be Safe

The Dave Matthews Band stands like an iceberg in the North Atlantic this week--ready to sink “Titanic.” That is, the rock band’s “Before These Crowded Streets” is poised to take over the No. 1 position on the national album sales chart from the “Titanic” soundtrack when its first-week sales figures are reported by SoundScan on Wednesday, which would end the latter’s chart-topping run after 16 weeks. (Only Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Some Gave All,” which topped the chart for 17 consecutive weeks in 1992, has held the No. 1 position for more successive weeks during the SoundScan era, which started in 1991.) “Titanic” barely edged out George Strait’s “One Step at a Time” for No. 1 on the most recent chart, and retailers expect the third studio album from the Dave Matthews Band to post a higher first-week sales figure than “One Step,” which sold about 178,000 copies to finish 6,000 behind “Titanic.” Each of the band’s first two albums has sold about 3.5 million copies--and the last, 1996’s “Crash,” sold about 254,000 during its first week in stores. Scott Levin, director of marketing for the Musicland Group, the nation’s largest record retailer, says first-day sales of the new album last Tuesday “almost exceeded our first-week forecast” and predicts that the record’s opening-week total could reach 400,000. “The setup for this album has been outstanding,” he says of RCA Records’ promotional campaign. “They’ve built a lot of interest.”

--Compiled by Times Staff Writers and Contributors