What's news: Drive-in movie theaters are having a global resurgence, STX merges with India's Eros International, San Diego Comic-Con canceled, FCC asks Supreme Court to weigh in on media ownership rules, Weather Channel sues Nielsen, Bob Iger and Tim Cook on California's post-COVID recovery council, Netflix boosts virus relief fund, WGA-studio negotiations near. Plus: More Tiger King numbers, and HBO Max's dog-grooming competition. --Alex Weprin

 A New Era... For Drive-Ins

►Drive-in movie theaters thrive despite lack of new titles: "People just want to get out". In the age of social distancing, drive-in ticket sales in Germany and South Korea are booming, Scott Roxborough reports. Here in the U.S., a handful are open, and others are interested in trying.

--On April 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was considering allowing drive-ins to re-open, even as regular theaters, judged nonessential businesses, stay shut. "Where is the public safety issue? It’s a drive-in theater. You’re in the car with the same people," Cuomo said during his daily briefing. At least two New York theaters, the Four Brothers in Amenia and the Warwick Drive-In in Warwick, have requested waivers from the nonessential restrictions. (At the same time, a lack of new Hollywood product remains an issue.)

--"Whatever the state wants us to do, we're willing to do," Warwick Drive-In owner Beth Wilson told THR. "We want people to enjoy going out, but in a safe environment. If you're in your car with an average family — two parents in the front seat and two kids in the back — you're sitting in a car with people you're with in the house. It's a little outing." The story.

►STX to merge with India's Eros International. The new firm, which will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange, will be titled Eros STX Global Corp and will release 40 feature films and more than 100 TV episodes in 2020 alone.

--Post-merger, the firm will have access to $125 million in equity investors, including TPG, Hony Capital and Liberty Global. The companies said that that the combined firm includes $264 million of pro forma net debt and $195 million of pro forma cash balance. Eros STX projects $50 million in synergies within its first two years. The story.

►San Diego Comic-Con canceled amid coronavirus pandemic. The annual entertainment and comic book convention was scheduled to take place from July 23-26 in San Diego, California. It will next occur July 22-25, 2021. This is the first time in the event's 50-year history that it has been canceled. The story.

+Some better comic news: The temporary shutdown of the North American comic book industry may be nearing its end, even as the largest publisher in the business has placed more of its output on pause. THR has confirmed that Diamond Comics Distributors has informed retailers of its intent to restart shipments of new product by the end of May, suggesting a potential target date for the relaunch of the comic book market. More.

 The Federal Communications Commission, backed by Donald Trump appointees at the Department of Justice, is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on what's become a rather lengthy fight over media ownership rules. The story.

+Weather Channel owner sues Nielsen over $475K monthly ratings fee. CF Entertainment on Friday sued The Nielsen Company for breach of contract and unfair competition and unjust enrichment. CF, which is owned by Byron Allen's Media Group, claims it's being overcharged by more than $400,000 per month. The story.

+The producers of Hustlers are asking a New York federal judge to toss a lawsuit filed by the real-life adult entertainer who inspired Jennifer Lopez's character in the film, arguing she can't succeed on her claims that the film used her likeness without permission and damaged her reputation.

--Samantha Barbash in January sued STX, along with Gloria Sanchez Productions and Lopez's Nuyorican Productions. She claims the film, which is based on a 2015 New York Magazine article centered on her experience working in gentlemen's clubs, exploited her likeness without her permission and defamed her by showing the character using and mixing drugs in the home that she shared with her child. The story.

 Hollywood Heavyweights on California's Recovery Council

►Bob Iger, Tim Cook, former governors among Gov. Gavin Newsom's Economic Recovery Council. Business, social and health care leaders are members of the newly-announced council tasked with guiding the world's fifth largest economy through a reopening. “We will try to come up with a recovery plan that is worthy of California’s past and pushes us to a better future and remedies some of the injustices that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed in our society,” Newsom said at a press conference. The story.

►Netflix increases virus relief fund by 50 percent to $150 million. Netflix initially pledged $100 million to the out-of-work production community in mid-March after it paused its many productions across the globe. Separately, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin donated $30 million to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a nonprofit organization started by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that's working on life-saving immunization programs to fight COVID-19. The story.

+Also: The Sundance Institute has launched a COVID-19 relief fund for indie artists, with a $1 million pot... Screen Ireland has unveiled an enhanced round of support measures totaling 4.25 million euros ($4.6 million) to assist the Irish film and TV industry during the coronavirus crisis...

+Netflix's streaming gains may grow amid virus crisis, analyst forecasts. MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson on Friday touted Netflix as the leader in Hollywood's streaming wars over peers Amazon Prime, YouTube, Hulu and Disney+.

--"The world is trapped indoors, live sports on TV is non-existent, theaters are closed, unemployment is spiking to terrible levels, and new content is impossible to produce. Who wins? The one company with an incredibly cheap price point, a gargantuan library of new and original content to satisfy most demand and broad distribution," Nathanson wrote. The story.

Read The Hollywood Reporter cover to cover and hundreds of other magazines in Apple News+.

In other coronavirus-related news...

--For the first time in nearly six decades, New York's Public Theater will not host its free Shakespeare in the Park performances this summer due to the ongoing pandemic.

--Taylor Swift has canceled all of her 2020 live appearances and performances amid the worldwide novel coronavirus pandemic.

--Tom Hanks says he perplexed an Australian doctor while receiving coronavirus care.

--The writer-director of the South Korean zombie drama Kingdom talk about its global response and coronavirus parallels.

 WGA-Studio Negotiations Near

►Writers Guild proposes studio negotiations begin in May. Talks between the Writers Guild of America and major motion picture and television studios, originally scheduled to begin March 23, may start next month: the WGA West proposed in an email disclosed Friday that the parties exchange initial proposals May 1 and begin talks the week of May 11. The email, from WGAW executive director David Young to Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, also proposes extending the existing contract to June 30. It’s currently set to expire May 1. The story.

+Writers Guild West asks CBS for expanded sick leave for journalists. In a recent petition penned in March, the writers' union calls on the network to provide at least 14 days of paid sick leave to news, web, digital, and promo writers that have been hospitalized with COVID-19, self-isolated due to COVID-19 infection or potential exposure and/or are caregivers for individuals that have contracted COVID-19. More.

+In other labor news: Top musicians' groups and two California legislators have unveiled a proposed amendment to the controversial gig-economy law AB 5 to ease its impact on music professionals. More.

►Party of Five reboot canceled at Freeform. Freeform has opted to cancel the reboot with an immigration twist from original series creators Amy Lippman and Chris Keyser after one season. The drama, which wrapped its 10-episode freshman season in early March, was produced by Sony Pictures Television — the same studio that was behind Fox's 1990s original. More.

►TV Long View: The paradox of delayed viewing during coronavirus quarantines. While live TV usage and streaming have both boomed in recent weeks, three- and seven-day ratings gains for network shows have hardly moved, Rick Porter reports. The story.

+TV ratings: ABC's Disney Family Singalong special delivered big ratings Thursday, drawing the network's best numbers in the 8 p.m. time slot this season. NBC's Law & Order: SVU also hit a season high in total viewers. The numbers.

+Tiger King streaming tops 5 billion minutes, Nielsen says. Nielsen has already noted the show's growth over its first 10 days of release. More data from the ratings service shows that despite only having seven episodes, Tiger King racked up more streaming minutes than any other title in Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings (which currently includes Netflix and Amazon) in the week of March 23. More.

+What sports fans are watching when there are no sports on TV. Nielsen has released a study on how what it calls "heavy sports viewers" are spending their viewing time without live games to watch. The ratings service defines heavy sports viewers as the top 20 percent of live sports event viewers in the month prior to leagues shutting down.

--News coverage saw the biggest boost. It went from about 10 percent of viewing time in the weekend of March 7-8 to an average of 17 percent over the next three weekends. Viewing of feature films also grew, from about 12.5 percent of time in early March to 17 percent on subsequent weekends. More.

In other news...

--Universal is developing Dan and Sam, a supernatural romance based on the 2015 graphic novel by Mark Watson and Oliver Harud.

--Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the worldwide rights to the Imagine Documentaries and CNN Films documentary Julia, about Julia Child, the celebrity TV chef and cookbook author.

--The Handmaid's Tale director Reed Morano is in talks to direct Jennifer Lopez in The Godmother, a movie based on the true-life Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco, for STXfilms.

--ViacomCBS on Friday said it will redeem $800 million in senior secured notes that mature in 2021.

--HBO Max has announced its latest unscripted order — a dog-grooming competition, tentatively titled Hot Dog.

--British documentary maker Louis Theroux's production company, Mindhouse Productions, has secured a first-look distribution deal with BBC Studios.

What else we're reading...

--"Live sports are canceled. But don’t expect a cable-TV refund" [WSJ]

--"Dr. Oz faces backlash after saying schools could reopen" [NY Times]

--"Post corona: The four" [No Mercy/No Malice]

--"Howard Finkel was the voice of a generation" [The Ringer]

Today's birthdays: Melissa Joan Hart, 44, Eric Roberts, 64, James Woods, 73, Conan O'Brien, 57, David Tennant, 49.