THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ***** Monday, March 16, 2020 |B5
BUSINESS & FINANCE
comes on top of rising demand
from China since the start of the
year and from other parts of the
world more recently. The com-
pany has set up a task force to
decide which orders to priori-
tize, according to a company
spokesman.Pictures finally released its
controversial thriller “The
Hunt,” which grossed $5.3 mil-
lion, enough to take a disap-
pointing fifth place behind an-
other thriller from the samestudio, “The Invisible Man.
The trio of new releases’
ticket sales came in 30% less
than they would have normally,
according to David A. Gross of
Franchise Entertainment Re-of contracting the coronavirus
by exposing themselves to large
groups of people.
Walt DisneyCo.’s “Onward”
ranked atop the reduced pile,
coming in No. 1 at the box of-
fice for the second weekend in
arow.
But after grossing only $10.5
million in the U.S. and Canada,
according to preliminary esti-
mates, the animated film’s 73%
second-week drop was the larg-
est ever for a movie produced
by Disney’s Pixar Animation
Studios.
While big franchise films
have already been pulled from
the coming schedule, for at
least this weekend, studios
stuck to their release plans,
premiering some lower-profile
titles which all delivered poor
results amid the troubled land-
scape.
In second place wasLions
Gate Entertainment Corp.’s
faith-based “I Still Believe,”
which grossed $9.5 million, ac-
cording to Comscore.
SonyCorp.’s comic-book-in-
spired “Bloodshot,” starring
Vin Diesel, was close behind,
grossing $9.3 million. The
movie cost $45 million to make.
ComcastCorp.’s UniversalThe domestic box office
posted its worst weekend in
nearly two decades amid calls
to practice social distancing to
slow the coronavirus pandemic,
though the public has yet to
abandon going to the movies
altogether.
With the box office experi-
encing its first weekend fully in
the throes of the virus out-
break, grosses in the U.S. and
Canada totaled just $55.3 mil-
lion, according to media-mea-
surement company Comscore
Inc.
Ranking as the worst week-
end in recent memory is Sept.
15-17, 2000, when the box office
generated just $54.5 million in
ticket sales, according to Com-
score. It was the worst March
weekend since at least 1998,
the first year for which Com-
score has data. The weekend
following the terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, represented a
modest improvement on that
low-water mark.
Hollywood had anticipated
weak ticket sales as major the-
ater chains took measures to
reduce capacity by 50% in an
effort to allay moviegoers’ fears
BYR.T.WATSON
Movie-Ticket
SalesDropto
20-Year Low
search Inc.
Pulling in grosses about a
third below precoronavirus ex-
pectations perhaps wasn’t so
bad considering that on Friday,
some of the nation’s largest
theaters said they were reduc-
ing capacity by 50% as some
states prohibited gatherings of
250 people or more.
AMC Entertainment Hold-
ings Inc. said Friday it would
limit attendance by half. “Once
we hit 50% of an auditorium’s
capacity, movie screenings will
show as being Sold Out,” AMC
said in a statement signed by
Chief Executive Adam Aron.
The company implemented
its plan Saturday and said it
would keep the measure inplace at least until April 30.
Cineworld Group PLC’s Regal
Entertainment Group took simi-
lar measures, also limiting ca-
pacity at 50%.
Theaters also might close
entirely, The Wall Street Jour-
nal reported previously, citing a
person familiar with the mat-
ter. The situation is “really fluid
and depending on local health
officials and conditions,” the
person said.
Some theater owners are
worried they might have to
close their doors even if au-
thorities don’t order them to
do so, as Hollywood studios
pulling marquee titles from the
schedule will likely spell disas-
ter for smaller chains.The faith-based drama ‘I Still Believe’ finished No. 2 in receipts on a weekend when major theater chains cut capacity by 50%.JASON LAVERIS/LIONSGATE/EVERETT COLLECTIONEstimated Box-Office Figures, Through Sunday
SALES, IN MILLIONS
FILM DISTRIBUTOR WEEKEND* CUMULATIVE % CHANGE
1.‘Onward’ Pixar $10.5 $60.3 -73
2.‘I Still Believe’ Lionsgate $9.5 $9.5 —
3.‘Bloodshot’ Sony $9.3 $9.3 —
4.‘The Invisible Man’ Universal $6.0 $64.4 -60
5.‘The Hunt’ Universal $5.3 $5.3 —
*Friday,Saturdayand Sunday Source: Comscoreother tech leaders that will one
day save millions of lives here
in the United States and around
the world,” Mr. Conway wrote
in one email pitch.
He said he has so far raised
about $5 million “across all ef-
forts” after starting about two
weeks ago.
Sam Altman, who headed up
Silicon Valley’s famed Y-Combi-
nator startup accelerator,
posted on Twitter and his blog
Sunday saying he wants to fund
more startups helping to fight
the virus because “it’s basically
the one thing I know how to do
that can help.”
Mr. Altman posted a spread-
sheet where others could write
in their ideas of startups to
fund and quickly had more than
three dozen companies listed.
“Silicon Valley has wanted
the government to take this se-
riously for awhile,” said Mr.
Altman. “I still think an aggres-
sive containment strategy
would be great. But given that
that didn’t happen fast enough
we need to think about Plan B.”
One of the companies Mr.
Altman invested in this week is
Cambridge, Mass.-basedHelix
NanotechnologiesInc. For the
past two years it has been
working on a new cancer vac-
cine, but on Tuesday the team
huddled via videoconference
and decided to use the technol-
ogy they are developing to
fight the coronavirus.
Vaccines take a while to de-
velop and they hope they can
create one that will fight differ-
ent mutations of coronavirus
that could emerge next year. To
help spin up the new effort, Mr.
Altman and other previous
backers of the company are
putting in more money, said
Hannu Rajaniemi, Helix’s co-
founder and CEO.
—Dana Mattioli
contributed to this article.want anybody who has the man-
ufacturing capability to turn to
a manufacturer of ventilators.”
Doctors use ventilators,
which cost up to $50,000
apiece, to move air into the
lungs of patients who aren’t
able to breathe on their own. In
the absence of a treatment for
the Covid-19 disease, they have
often been a last resort to keep
alive the roughly 5% of patients
who experience the most acute
form of the illness.
Europe and the U.S. have
raced to prepare for a surge in
coronavirus infections, trying to
avoid the fate of Italy, where
doctors are having to prioritize
treating certain patients as hos-
pitals can no longer cope with
rising numbers of acute cases.
For manufacturers, the surge
in orders has been a boon and a
challenge.
Drägerwerk said it would
need to invest heavily in equip-
ment and people to cope with
the government order, whichDrägerwerk’s production
plant in Lübeck, where the ven-
tilators are assembled mostly
by hand with parts sourced
from around Europe and Asia,
has been sealed off for foreign
visitors to avoid infecting work-
ers.Europe’s first cases of the
novel coronavirus sparked a
rush for face masks. Now, with
hundreds dying every day, gov-
ernments are racing to stock up
on ventilators, a crucial piece of
medical equipment needed to
save patients with acute in-
stances of the disease it causes.
For the handful of companies
that manufacture such devices,
this has meant working over-
time to satisfy a demand peak
none of them have ever experi-
enced.
The German government last
week ordered 10,000 ventilators
fromDrägerwerkAG, the com-
pany’s biggest contract ever,
worth roughly a year’s produc-
tion, according to a company
spokesman.
Italy, where infections have
stricken almost 25,000 and
killed more than 1,800, is ten-
dering for a total of 5,000 venti-
lators. A team of nine medical
experts arrived from China
Thursday, bringing nine pallets
of medical equipment, including
ventilators. China shipped an-
other 150 ventilators on Sunday,
Rome said.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris
Johnson, meanwhile, in a con-
ference call Monday will urge
British manufacturers across
sectors to help with production
of ventilators and other medical
equipment, according to the
prime minister’s office.
“We’ve been buying up venti-
lators since this started,” Health
Secretary Matt Hancock said
Sunday in an interview with the
British Broadcasting Corp.
“We’ve got high-quality engi-
neering in this country and we
BYRUTHBENDER
ANDPETERLOFTUS
Ventilator Makers Race to Fill Orders
Germany has 25,000 ventilators hooked up and has ordered an additional 10,000 from one company.
Machines are seen in facilities in Dresden, above to right of bed, and near Stuttgart.FROM TOP: RONALD BON/DPA/ZUMA; SEBASTIAN GOLLNOW/DPA/ZUMAhow many hospital beds will be
available at any given time.
The task force started about
two weeks ago but its efforts
have taken on heightened ur-
gency in recent days, including
after a meeting some tech exec-
utives had with White House
officials on Wednesday, these
people say. “It’s gotten bad
enough,” said one of the people
involved in the effort. The task
force is separate from the
group of executives that spoke
last week with White House of-
ficials.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff
Bezos, who in the past has had
a contentious relationship with
President Trump, is among the
top tech executives who is in
contact with the White House,
according to a person familiar
with the matter.
Numerous other efforts are
under way across Silicon Valley.
Outside of the task force ef-
forts, Ron Conway, one of the
most well-known angel inves-
tors in Silicon Valley, has been
pitching tech executives, other
investors and legislators to
raise money for research and
community efforts, particularly
those by the University of Cali-
fornia, San Francisco.
UCSF is running a Covid-19
Response Fund, raising money
to expand diagnostic and test-
ing capacity, as well as ensur-
ing necessary housing for pa-
tients.
“I’m proud to contribute to
this critical effort along withContinued from page B1Ta s k Fo rc e
Ta ke s O n
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