This movie is so obscure and unnoteworthy in most ways (though a fine film with some interesting twists and ideas) that i doubt is was the basis for Meteor, Armegeddon, When Worlds Collide or others of that sort. More likely they sprung from the disaster movie genre as they looked for something besides the latest Airport or others that had been done to death by then. Or in Armegeddon's vase the next big nudget, big booms Bruckheimer film. ;o)
Definitely not the basis for When Worlds Collide, which was based on a novel written in the 1930s and filmed in 1951, seven years before this movie was made. But there's nothing particularly new in the concept of another body striking Earth anyway. There was an even more obscure French film from 1930 called End of the World, showing how mankind reacts in its final days when a large meteor is about to strike, destroying the planet. There are the other two films you mentioned, Meteor (1979) and Armageddon (1998), plus that other similar disaster film of 1998, Deep Impact. Even a second-season episode of the 1950s TV program Adventures of Superman dealt with the same theme. There are other examples. It's a good basic plot if done right. You're right, La morte viene dallo spazio/The Day the Sky Exploded has some interesting points about it. Its main problem is that its budget is too low for its ideas.
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