ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

MOVIES

Box-Office Voyage: While no one expects Tom Hanks’ survival drama “Cast Away” to be titanic, it does look to be huge. It’s performing as close to an “event” movie as any older-audience-skewing serious drama has since 1997’s “Titanic.” Since debuting Dec. 22, “Cast Away” has averaged at least $10 million a day and is attracting “all four quadrants,” according to 20th Century Fox distribution chief Bruce Snyder. That means ticket buyers are both young and old, male and female. Estimates for the film’s first full week are about $69 million in 2,768 theaters, Snyder says. By comparison, “Titanic’s” first-week take was about $53 million. Snyder conservatively estimates the four-day new year’s holiday weekend’s take will be about $30 million, which should put “Cast Away” at the $100-million mark by New Year’s Day, its 11th day in theaters. The Mel Gibson comedy “What Women Want,” meanwhile, should reach $100 million slightly sooner, probably by New Year’s Eve, though it’s been out a week longer than “Cast Away.”

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Awards Jockeying: With Britain’s top film awards being doled out ahead of the Oscars for the first time, studios are putting their publicity machines into high gear earlier than usual. The coming British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, known as the Baftas, are scheduled for Feb. 25--four weeks before the Academy Awards. That’s smack in the middle of prime Oscar campaign time, and in a year in which many races are still unusually open. British Academy officials say the earlier date has raised the profile of their event, which in the past was something of an afterthought. As a result, there are more special screenings in England and more videos being sent out this year. Stars and directors appearing at recent screenings at the academy’s London headquarters have included Geoffrey Rush (“Quills”), Michael Winterbottom (“The Claim”), Joel Schumacher (“Tigerland”), Michael Douglas and Curtis Hanson (“Wonder Boys”), and Kate Hudson and Patrick Fugit (“Almost Famous”). . . . In other awards news, “Erin Brockovich” has nabbed the best picture and best director prizes (for Steven Soderbergh) from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society. The group’s acting honors went to Rush (“Quills”), Hudson (“Almost Famous”), Ellen Burstyn (“Requiem for a Dream”) and Benicio Del Toro (“Traffic”).

POP/ROCK

What’s Profit Got to Do With It? Tina Turner’s much-publicized farewell tour tops Pollstar magazine’s list of the year’s biggest-earning concert treks, edging out teen powerhouse ‘N Sync. Turner’s ticket sales totaled $80.2 million, the industry trade publication said, while the boy band took in $76.4 million. Dave Matthews Band ($68.2 million) took the third spot on the year-end list, followed by rockers KISS ($62.7 million) and the husband-and-wife country pairing of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill ($48.8 million). The rest of the top 10, in descending order: The Dixie Chicks ($47.3 million); Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ($45.9 million); Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ($42.1 million); Metallica ($42 million) and Britney Spears ($40.5 million). In all, an estimated $1.7 billion in concert tickets were sold in 2000, up from last year’s record $1.5 billion, but the average price of tickets--$43.75--was virtually unchanged from last year’s $43.63. High seat prices lifted some to lofty positions on the list with seemingly little effort, however: While it took Turner some 95 concerts to amass her $80.2 million total, another diva on a farewell tour, Barbra Streisand, performed only four shows to land at No. 14 with a take of $27 million, thanks to an average ticket price of $471.27, Pollstar said.

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In Hindsight . . .: INXS rocker Michael Hutchence, who hung himself in a Sydney hotel in 1997, had previously discussed suicide with U2’s Bono, who now feels guilty over his friend’s death, Rolling Stone reports in its upcoming issue. Bono tells the magazine that the two singers had agreed how “pathetic” suicide was, “[and] we kind of promised each other we wouldn’t . . . cross that line where things get stupid.” Bono wrote a song about Hutchence, “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” for U2’s latest album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” “That song is . . . a row between mates,” Bono said. “You’re kind of trying to slap somebody around the face, trying to wake them up out of an idea. In my case it’s a row that I didn’t have while he was alive.”

TELEVISION

Sweeping Up: Final results for the November rating sweeps show that Spanish-language KMEX-TV topped all local stations among the younger demographics most sought by advertisers, due in part to the Latino population’s younger profile. KMEX, owned by Univision, edged KNBC-TV among adults 18 to 49 on a total-day basis, according to Nielsen Media Research estimates, and even more easily surpassed second-place Fox station KTTV in the 18-to-34 age bracket. Viewing of KMEX rose by at least 15% over last November’s numbers in each of those key groups.

QUICK TAKES

The longtime secret mistress of the late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt has won her legal battle for ownership of his Montana fishing retreat, with the state’s Supreme Court unanimously upholding a lower court’s ruling that the property--worth about $600,000--belongs to Patricia Shannon, and not to Kuralt’s daughters. . . . CBS has scheduled “Blonde,” a miniseries on the life of Marilyn Monroe, for May 13 and 16. Poppy Montgomery (“The Other Sister”) plays Monroe. . . . L.A.-based modern dance company Diavolo Dance Theatre makes its New York debut with a seven-show run Wednesday through Jan. 7 at the Joyce Theater. . . . Game-show host Bob Eubanks gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today during 11:30 a.m. ceremonies at 6712 Hollywood Blvd.