What's news: Executives and analysts weigh the future of theatrical entertainment, Disney CEO Bob Chapek joins the company's board, Ari Emanuel, Vince McMahon and sports commissioners talk with Trump, Barry Diller's warning, Charter signs on as an HBO Max partner. Plus: Bob Odenkirk inks a first-look deal with Sony, and Fox orders a pregnancy dating show. --Alex Weprin

 Theatrical's Future

What does the future hold for movie theaters? With cinemas across the globe shuttered due to the coronavirus pandemic, industry executives and financial analysts are trying to figure out what companies will thrive in this new world, and what firms could struggle to survive.

+Cinemark CEO says shuttered theaters may reopen by July 1. "A return to normalcy may span multiple months driven by staggered theater openings due to government limits, reduced operating hours, lingering social distancing and a ramp-up of consumer comfort with public gatherings," Mark Zoradi said on a morning call to update Wall Street analysts. Cinemark execs said the chain would take June to bring back employees and begin classic movie screenings later that month to get patrons back to the multiplex. The story.

+Will China's Wanda Group bail out AMC Theatres? The conglomerate, AMC's largest shareholder, issued a statement in Beijing dismissing talk of the theater chain's possible bankruptcy as "pure rumor," sparking questions about whether it could step in to execute a rescue. The story.

+Imax has balance sheet "muscle" as China aims to reopen cinemas. Analyst Eric Handler of MKM Partners on Wednesday said Imax has "multiple years of liquidity" on hand with which to start reopening its screens in China in mid-May. "We continue to favor Imax among the exhibition related companies. This view is based on the strength of its balance sheet, its high level of liquidity and our expectation it will be the first of the companies to be back in business given its presence in China," the analyst said in an April 15 investors note. The story.

+You could always stay home for the time being: A continued blackout on moviegoing has prompted Walt Disney Studios to offer a flash sale for dozens of titles from its library, including all Star Wars movies, The Sound of Music and numerous 20th Century Fox films. For a limited time, consumers in the U.S. can buy select offerings digitally for $4.99 to $9.99, a hefty discount. The studio is organizing the films into weekly, themed collections that will be available for a seven-day period. More.

 Chapek Joins Disney's Board

►Disney CEO Bob Chapek elected to company's board of directors. "Bob Chapek has demonstrated remarkable leadership in the face of unprecedented challenges that were unimaginable when he became CEO just seven weeks ago," said Susan Arnold, independent lead director of the Disney board, and Bob Iger, executive chairman and chairman of the board, in a joint statement. Chapek's employment agreement stipulated that he would join the board at some point during his tenure, but the pandemic may have sped up that process. The story.

+While Disney is heavily exposed to the virus, S&P Global argues that Fox Corp. may be best positioned to weather the storm. "Fox's healthy cash flow generation and significant cash balances should allow it to counter the decline in its EBITDA. We expect the company to generate $1.7 billion in annual free cash flow in both fiscal years 2020 and 2021," S&P Global forecast, adding: "Fox could end fiscal year 2020 with $4.6 billion of cash on its balance sheet before increasing to over $5.0 billion as of the end of fiscal year 2021." More.

►Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel joins sports league commissioners in talk with Trump. According to a White House pool report, Emanuel, along with WWE CEO Vince McMahon, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, UFC chief Dana White and many others, spoke to Trump about getting live sports back up and running.

--"Leaders of the sports organizations expressed appreciation for the President’s attention to their industry and offered innovative input on social distancing guidelines," the pool report stated. "President Trump acknowledged the important role that sports play in American life and expressed his desire to make sports a central part of the great American economic revival."

--Endeavor, which owns UFC and Professional Bull Riders, is like all other live event companies heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

+Also speaking with Trump on Wednesday were a few surprising names: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts (Trump threatened to "destroy" Comcast's image at a rally in February), and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

►Barry Diller’s warning: The IAC chairman and media mogul appeared on CNBC this morning, declaring the impact of the pandemic “cataclysmic,” and noting that one of his portfolio companies, Expedia, will reduce its advertising by more than 80 percent this year. He also weighed in on the pandemic’s impact on entertainment.

Quote: “Streaming has taken over the world, Hollywood is irrelevant. The only companies that have a true path, an absolutely clear business model path forward, have nothing to do with the entertainment business: Amazon and Netflix. Everybody else? Good luck to them. I mean they may be able to build subscription services that may be profitable, but that world has changed forever.”

►Federal loans top $8 billion for entertainment, arts, information and recreation sectors. The PPP program, enacted as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act on March 27, provides small businesses and independent contractors with forgivable loans — in essence, grants — equal to 2.5 times their average monthly payroll costs. The details.



^WarnerMedia strikes HBO Max distribution deal with Charter. The multiyear distribution agreement means that all of Charter's existing HBO subscribers will be automatically upgraded to HBO Max, which offers an expanded library of new and classic programming for the same price as HBO. Other Charter customers will be able to subscribe to HBO Max directly through their existing memberships. The story.

Media and entertainment companies continue to react to the novel coronavirus...

►Charter raises $3 billion in new debt offering. The pandemic has led Charter, like most large Hollywood media players, to increase its access to cash so that it can weather the storm and resume normal operations once the health threat recedes. More.

+The WWE says that it is taking significant steps to reduce costs amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement Wednesday, the company said that it would furlough many employees, and that executives and board members would see compensation reduced. It's also cutting talent, and deferring spending on its new headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, for at least six months. More.

+Bearish Disney analyst warns investors over long-term COVID-19 impact. LightShed Partners' Richard Greenfield initiates covering of the stock with a "neutral" rating, saying the Hollywood conglomerate's near- to medium-term earnings are "likely to be far lower than investors realize." More.

►How I'm Living Now: David T. Friendly, Queen of the South producer. The longtime producer, best known for Little Miss Sunshine, was in New Orleans during Mardi Gras filming his USA Network series before the novel coronavirus brought production to a halt. "That could have been a very dangerous situation," he says now of the boisterous celebration. These days, he's back in Brentwood, where he's converted his home gym into a makeshift office. He spoke with THR about his new normal, which includes working on a pilot with his son and a now daily lunch meeting with his editor-wife, Priscilla Nedd-Friendly. The interview.

►Roger Corman launches short film fest competition during quarantine. Corman on his Instagram page billed the film competition as "the first (and hopefully last) Corman Quarantine Film Festival." The rules call for filmmakers to make a short film inside their home or backyard with what they have at hand as they isolate from the coronavirus pandemic. More.

►Howard Dean rips TV networks for airing Trump briefings: "It's dangerous." "Trump is not doing this for any reason other than to communicate with his base at a time where he can't have rallies," Dean tells THR's Jeremy Barr. "This has been a problem since Trump ran. Cable television made Donald Trump, because cable television is reality television. But it has very little to do with governance. ... It's dangerous." The story.

►NBC's Lester Holt is channeling his inner Linda Ellerbee. Holt and the NBC Nightly News team are launching a kids edition of the newscast to help explain the trying times we are in, which will be available on YouTube and other digital platforms. The first episode is here.

►Time rethinks the Time 100.This week would have been the annual special issue, where leaders from the world of politics, business, science and entertainment are honored. Instead, the magazine asked notable people, including entertainment notables Shonda Rhimes, Margaret Atwood, James Corden, Samantha Bee, and Angelina Jolie, to write about how to navigate the new world the pandemic has created.

In coronavirus-related news...

--Because so many Walt Disney World Resort workers will stop getting paid on Sunday, Florida is considering auto-enrolling them into the unemployment benefit system.

--Paramount Pictures has lit its iconic Hollywood studio water tower blue to salute millions of workers on the front line of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

--Chris Cuomo says his wife Cristina tested positive for coronavirus.

--The union representing actors and stage managers has issued a stern warning to productions looking to resume business in less than a month amid the coronavirus outbreak. Actors' Equity said on Wednesday that it had received "troubling" reports that some theaters were preparing to resume productions on paused or delayed shows "as early as May 6."

--The Tour de France has new dates. Because of restrictions related to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the iconic race around France will now start Aug. 29 and finish Sept. 20.

--Billy McFarland, the notorious mastermind behind the Fyre Festival debacle in 2017, on Tuesday asked to be released from prison early amid the coronavirus pandemic.

--Rihanna, Jay-Z and Twitter's Jack Dorsey are adding to their seven-figure efforts to aid coronavirus relief efforts, this time with a focus on marginalized communities in cities that have been hit hard during the current pandemic.

Obituary: Paul Cooper, a music industry veteran who worked in high-level roles at Universal Music Group and Atlantic/Warner Records during a career that spanned more than five decades, died March 26. He was 76...

 TV Deals...

A pair of notable TV deals:

+Bob Odenkirk inks first-look deal with Sony TV. The Emmy-winning star of Better Call Saul has signed a first-look producing deal with the studio behind the Breaking Bad prequel series. Additionally, Odenkirk has launched his own production company, Cal-Gold Pictures. Odenkirk's goal with Cal-Gold is to develop stories that are compelling, with dynamic characters and social relevance in both drama and sketch comedy and beyond. The story.

+Max Borenstein, showrunner on Lakers drama series, inks overall deal with HBO. Under the pact, which has been in the works for months, he will create and develop new material for the WarnerMedia-backed outlet as well as continue to oversee the forthcoming basketball series based on Jeff Pearlman's book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s. The story.

►Pregnancy dating show with ex-Bachelor contestant a go at Fox. The network has greenlit Labor of Love, an eight-episode series that follows Kristy Katzmann on an "unconventional journey toward love and motherhood." The show, hosted by Kristin Davis, is set to premiere May 21. The long-gestating project will center on Katzmann, who at 41 is ready to start a family. She will be introduced to 15 like-minded men who will go through a series of challenges to showcase their paternal and relationship skills, while also potentially kindling a romance with Katzmann. The story.

►WGA East accuses NBCUniversal of union-busting. The Writers Guild of America East filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board that accuses NBCUniversal of union-busting over the January closure of the nonfiction production unit Peacock Productions. Peacock Productions — which had been unionized since 2016 — was replaced by NBC News Studios, a production unit that produces documentaries, documentary series, some scripted programs and programs for "emerging platforms." The story.

►Specialty cable networks thrive during quarantine. Channels ranging from TLC to Nickelodeon have seen their audiences grow with millions more potential viewers at home. Rick Porter has the details.

+TV ratings: The season finale of New Amsterdam scored season highs for NBC, tying its best 18-49 rating of 2019-20 and drawing its biggest total viewer count in more than a year. CBS' FBI: Most Wanted also improved, drawing its second-largest audience of the season, airing directly after NCIS. The numbers.

►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews Kenya Barris' Netflix comedy #blackAF.

Revolving door: Christian Davin has been named global head of movies marketing for Amazon Studios... Legendary Entertainment has appointed Sirena Liu CEO of Legendary East, the studio's China-based division... Sabrina Ionescu, the WNBA's top 2020 draft prospect, has signed with WME Sports for all off-court activity...

In other news...

--Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro on Wednesday offered a chance for a fan to get a walk-on role in their upcoming film, Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, with funds going to charity. The winner will spend a day on the set and go to the premiere, DiCaprio said.

--On May 4, Disney+ is launching a new documentary series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.

--German authorities have dropped antitrust proceedings against pay TV broadcaster Sky and online sports streaming service Dazn over alleged collusion in the bidding for rights to the Champions League soccer tournament.

--For Rose Byrne, Mrs. America was a lot like Bridesmaids.

--Jack McBrayer and Johnny Knoxville have joined Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt interactive special.

--The first trailer for the biographical crime drama Capone, starring Tom Hardy as gangster Al Capone, dropped online Wednesday.

--Netflix on Wednesday released the first-look trailer at scripted comedy Never Have I Ever, the semi-autobiographical series based on Mindy Kaling's life.

What else we're reading...

--"Life at CNN: Skeleton staff, record ratings, and vanishing ads" [WSJ]

--"The future that Hollywood feared is happening now" [NY Times]

--AMC Networks rolls out upfront portal to assist buyers during pandemic" [AdWeek]

--"Michael Che says he’ll pay rent for 160 apartments in honor of grandmother who died of COVID-19" [Forbes]

Today's birthdays: Bill Belichick, 68, Nate Diaz, 35, Chance the Rapper, 27, Sadie Sink, 18.