Film Studios Are Girding for Summer : Hollywood: The finishing touches of strategy and marketing are being put on a season of sequels.

With the peak summer moviegoing months almost here, the Hollywood studios are putting final touches on their release schedules. Like television networks gearing for ratings sweeps, the studios have spent much of the spring engaged in a planning war of marketing and counterprogramming that they hope will produce blockbuster ticket sales this summer.

Studios have changed the announced released dates on about half a dozen major summer movies. In some cases, the schedule changes are expected to result in fierce contests between two or more potential hits while, in other cases, the date swapping promises to give a film a relatively wide-open berth.

As ever, the studios are also counting on sequel appeal as a selling factor. The summer slate includes eight titles with a sense of deja vu , up from last summer’s seven.

Along with “RoboCop II,” “Another 48 HRS.,” “Die Hard 2” and “Gremlins II,” there’ll be “Exorcist III: Legion,” “Young Guns II,” “The Two Jakes” and “Back to the Future III.”

Most studio executives are quick to note that, even at this late date, everything on the summer slate is subject to change. Some films, such as 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard 2” are not finished yet and may not make their scheduled release dates. Still, other films may be moved in order to take advantage of a perceived weakness in the competition or to capitalize on other market changes.

Here’s the latest rundown:

* May 18: Orion Pictures’ “Cadillac Man,” starring Robin Williams, will trying to pick off Universal Pictures’ “Bird on a Wire,” starring Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson.

* May 25: Universal’s “Back to the Future III” looks like it may have the Memorial Day weekend all to itself. Ironically, the holiday weekend used to mark the kick-off of the summer movie season but no more.

* June 1: Tri-Star’s futuristic saga “Total Recall,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was initially scheduled to shoot it out with “Dick Tracy,” directed by and starring Warren Beatty on June 15. Then Tri-Star decided to move “Total Recall” to June 1, when there is no major opposition. The reason? “Those two movies were clearly competing for the same audience,” says a studio marketing executive from another studio, adding, “Now, Tri-Star has a clear shot.”

* June 8: When production went longer than planned on Paramount’s “Days of Thunder,” a racing drama starring Tom Cruise, the studio switched its opening with the planned June 27 release of “Another 48 HRS.,” which reteams Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy in a sequel to their hit 1982 action-comedy. So the sequel looks like it may have this weekend to itself.

* June 15: With “Total Recall” out of the June 15 slot, “Dick Tracy” briefly appeared to have a clear shot--until Warner decided to push back the opening date of its “Gremlins II: The New Batch” from May 18.

“It’s counterprogramming,” declares a marketing spokeswoman who asked that her name not be used. The strategy? “The talk around town is that ‘Dick Tracy’ and (director/star) Warren Beatty don’t have kid appeal. But kids definitely know the ‘Gremlins.’ ”

Last summer, it was Disney that counted on “kid appeal” as a counterprogramming element against Warner--by changing the release date of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” so that it opened the same week as Warner’s dark drama “Batman.” While the latter went on to rewrite the record books, with grosses of $251 million, “Honey” emerged a surprise hit--and proof of the burgeoning market for family movies--with grosses of $130 million.

* June 22: There’s a scheduled battle between Orion’s “RoboCop II,” starring Peter Weller, and 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard 2,” starring Bruce Willis. But if “Die Hard 2” doesn’t wrap production in time, it is likely to wind up racing Paramount’s “Days of Thunder” on June 27.

* June 27: “Days of Thunder.”

* July 13: “Exorcist III: Legion.”

* Late July: “Young Guns II.”

* Aug. 10: “The Two Jakes.”