Los Angeles Times - 11.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020C3

who did not want to be
named commenting publi-
cly on the situation. New
York, which has also suf-
fered from the outbreak, was
down 13%. Additionally,
Washington, D.C., saw a 9%
drop compared with last
week.
On the other hand, the
Los Angeles box office was
up 5%, despite multiple
coronovirus cases here. In
San Francisco, where multi-
ple tech companies pulled
out of the Game Developers
Conference over co-
ronavirus fears, the box of-
fice rose 8%. Meanwhile,
Austin experienced a 13%
jump over a year ago.
“I don’t see any clear cor-
relation at all,” said the exe-
cutive, who was not author-
ized to speak publicly on the
matter. “It’s really reflective
of the pictures in the
marketplace and how
they’re doing.”
Analysts were similarly
hesitant to draw any conclu-
sions from Pixar Animation
Studios’ new film, “On-
ward,” which grossed a rela-
tively soft $40 million in the
U.S. and Canada this past
weekend. Reviews for the
film, while mostly positive,
were less enthusiastic than
they have been for Pixar’s
greatest hits.
The computer-animated
comedy adventure scored
$28 million abroad from
countries including Britain
and France. The film has not
yet been released in the
heavily affected countries of
South Korea, Italy, Japan
and China. Disney on Sun-
day said “most regions with
the exception of Asia-Pacific
have not seen a material im-
pact at this point.”
In another sign of resil-
ience in moviegoing, return-
ing releases have held up
well at theaters. Universal
Pictures’ horror movie “The
Invisible Man,” starring Elis-
abeth Moss, declined only

46% in its second weekend, a

strong hold for a genre that

tends to see steeper drops.

Attendance is clearly tak-

ing a hit in some other coun-

tries. In China, the world’s

second-largest box-office

market behind the U.S. and

Canada, theaters have been

shuttered for weeks as that

country’s government tries

to get the situation under

control.

Home to 70,000 screens,

China is a key market for

Hollywood movies. Studios

have had to hit pause on

their plans to release movies

there, and there’s no indica-

tion of when multiplex doors

will reopen. Movies includ-

ing Disney’s “Mulan,” for

which China is an important

market, have been delayed.

(“Mulan,” set for a March 27

U.S. debut, had not yet been

given a release date in

China.)

Italy this week shut down

cinemas to help prevent fur-

ther spread. Other public

places such as museums,

pubs, discos and bingo halls

have also been closed. In

France, theaters that were

closed recently in some

places have since reopened,

but with restrictions to keep

every other row of seats

empty. South Korean thea-

ters have remained open for

business, but attendance

there has taken a big hit.

Other countries, includ-

ing Australia and Britain,

have remained stable, said

analyst Bruce Nash, who

runs the box office data web-

site The-Numbers.com.

“For now, the effects

seem to be localized,” Nash

said.

MGM and Universal last

week postponed the global

release of the James Bond

movie “No Time to Die” until

November. Small indie dis-

tributor Magnolia Pictures

on Monday pushed back the

debut of its gerrymandering

documentary “Slay the

Dragon.” On Tuesday, Sony

Pictures moved the release

of “Peter Rabbit 2: The Run-

away” from April 3 to Aug. 7.

So far, though, other stu-

dios are standing firm on

their release plans.

Disney has shown no

signs of holding off on the re-

leases of “Mulan” or Marvel

Studios’ “Black Widow,”

which hits theaters April 24.

Universal Pictures is stick-

ing with a May 22 release of

the ninth “Fast and the Furi-

ous” movie, “F9.”

Last week, the National

Assn. of Theatre Owners

told CinemaCon attendees

that the annual trade show

in Las Vegas starting March

30 would continue as

planned and that the event

would take additional pre-

cautions, such as providing

extra hand sanitizer and

trash bins.

“The safety and produc-

tivity of our attendees re-

mains our highest priority,”

the theater group said in an

email. “As of today, the CDC

maintains the risk for the

majority of the public re-

mains low.”

The next box-office test

comes this weekend with

“Bloodshot,” Sony Pictures’

new comic book action film

starring Vin Diesel. The

$45-million movie is ex-

pected to open with about

$10 million in its first week-

end, which is lower than ear-

lier industry projections for

the film. Also debuting are

Lionsgate’s faith-based film

“I Still Believe” and Uni-

versal’s satirical thriller

“The Hunt.”

In an interview with USA

Today, Diesel, who stars in

both “Bloodshot” and “F9,”

responded to a question

about the coronavirus’ po-

tential effect on release

plans for the new “Fast and

the Furious” film by chan-

neling the title character of

his other movie.

“Let me put it to you this

way: ‘Bloodshot’ at the end

of the day is a soldier, and a

soldier doesn’t decide or

pick when or where he’s de-

ployed,” he said. “We’re go-

ing to go in.”

Box office weathers virus fears

THE INVISIBLE MAN,starring Elisabeth Moss,

declined only 46% in its second weekend.

Mark RogersUniversal Pictures

[Movies,from C1]

A

B

C

D

E

F

H G

I

J

K

L M

N

O

P

Q

R

10 MILES

HH

II

JJ

RR

GG

AA

BB

CC

DD

EE

FF

KK

LL

NN

MM

PP

QQ

OO

Hotels.com

Chatsworth, Mon.

Tool of North America

Red Nose Day

Sun Valley, Tue.

Go Creative Agency

Galderma Spot

Hollywood Hills, Thu.

W2o Group

Everything, Everywhere

All At Once

Downtown L.A., Mon.-Fri.

Hot Dog Hands

His Wake

Santa Monica, Sun.-Mon.

Glix Entertainment Inc.

Ultrasound

Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw, Mon.

Lodger Films Inc.

Holey Moley

Tujunga Canyons, Mon.-Sun.

Crown Wilshire Productions

Young Sheldon

Van Nuys, Wed.-Fri.

Warner Bros. Television

The Real Housewives

of Beverly Hills

Encino, Mon.

EFT Media Productions

Im Sorry

Studio City, Mon.-Mon.

Queens

NCIS: Los Angeles

Hollywood, Mon.

CBS Corp.

GLOW

Adams-Normandie, Mon.-Tue

Glitter Pictures

Inside Out

Leimert Park, Fri.-Sun.

House8 Media

For All Mankind

Gardena, Mon.-Tue.

Mesquite Productions

This Is Us

Pacific Palisades, Mon.-Tue.

20th Century Fox Television

Audi

Beverly Hills, Tue.

MJZ

Bear Trap

Santa Clarita, Sat.-Sun.

New York Film Academy

Our Almost Completely

True Story

Ta rzana, Tue.-Wed.

Our Almost Completely True

Story

Television

Overall shoot days were down 9% last week for TV, film and

commercial shoots in the Los Angeles area compared with the

same period last year, according to FilmL.A. Inc.

FilmL.A. Inc.; cities of Beverly Hills and Santa Clarita

Thomas Suh Lauder Los Angeles Time

Note: Permits are subject to

last-minute changes.

Production days for three main categories

Sampling of permitted shoots this week

-11% +4% -13%

March 2-8, 2020 (367 total shoot days)

March 4-10, 2019 (405 total shoot days)

218 59 90

244 57 104

Television Features Commercials

Commercials

Features

2

5

5

5

10

405

210

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

101

Los Angeles

60

118

710

110

105

14

Where the cameras roll

SAN FRANCISCO — Le-
gal sparring over mobile
technology used by Quibi in-
tensified Tuesday after tech-
nology firm Eko sued the
streaming service for alleg-
edly lifting its technology.
In a federal lawsuit filed
in Los Angeles, Eko says a
key feature of Quibi’s service
called “turnstyle” — which
enables consumers to shift
their viewpoint in a video by
turning their phone verti-
cally or horizontally — cop-
ies Eko’s patented mobile
technology.
“This is a case to stop the
theft of Eko’s technology by
Quibi,” the New York com-
pany said in its lawsuit.
Quibi has denied wrong-
doing, saying it did not use
trade secrets or infringe on
Eko’s patent when it created
turnstyle. The Hollywood
company, led by tech veter-
an and Chief Executive Meg
Whitman and Chairman
Jeffrey Katzenberg, filed le-
gal documents on Monday
asking a federal court in L.A.
to issue a declaratory judg-
ment on the subject.
“These claims have abso-
lutely no merit, and we will
vigorously defend ourselves
against them in court,”
Quibi said in a statement
Monday. It declined to com-
ment on Eko’s lawsuit.

The legal battle comes at

a crucial time for Quibi, just

weeks before it launches its

subscription streaming

service April 6. The com-

pany — whose name stands

for “quick bites” of video —

aims to distribute episodes

that are told in 10 minutes or

less through its app for cell-

phones.

Already, the company

has had a few bumps along

the way, including the can-

cellation of its April 5 red

carpet event amid concerns

surrounding COVID-19, and

a verbal gaffe that resulted in

an apology from its CEO.

Eko, a subsidiary of JBF

Interlude Ltd. of Israel, be-

lieves Quibi stole its technol-

ogy after becoming aware of

it through demonstrations

Eko showed to Katzenberg

and Quibi employees when

they previously worked with

Eko’s partner, Santa Monica

camera and social media

company Snap.

In 2015, Eko filed an appli-

cation for a patent for its

technology and later that

year entered into a nondis-

closure agreement with

Snap to integrate its tech-

nology for its Snapchat app.

That agreement barred the

parties from disclosing, pub-

lishing, distributing or dis-

seminating confidential in-

formation to anyone outside

the company’s employees

and those bound by the

agreement, Eko said in its

lawsuit.

“This approach was con-

sistent with Eko’s approach

to protection of its technol-

ogy, which includes storage

of code on password pro-

tected servers, requiring

nondisclosure agreements

with third parties, and train-

ing of employees not to use

or disclose confidential,

commercially valuable infor-

mation,” Eko said.

Separately, in March 2017,

Eko CEO Yoni Bloch met

with Katzenberg as a poten-

tial investor. Bloch showed

the studio mogul a demo of

Eko’s technology, the com-

pany said.

Three Snap employees

who saw Eko’s technology

later joined Quibi, Eko said.

Two of those three employ-

ees were listed as the inven-

tors on Quibi’s patent for its

turnstyle technology, which

was filed in 2019.

Snap declined to com-

ment.

Quibi said in its legal

documents that it’s implau-

sible for the former Snap

employees to have received

Eko’s source code because

they are not engineers or

computer programmers.

Eko has notified Apple

Inc. of its concerns on Quibi

infringing on its patent. On

its App Store review guide-

lines, Apple said app devel-

opers should use only con-

tent that they have created

or have a license to include.

An Apple spokesman de-

clined to comment.

It is unclear whether Eko

has filed a similar complaint

with Google Play Store.

Google did not return a re-

quest for comment.

Ron Abrams, an intel-

lectual property attorney at

Brutzkus Gubner, said it is

possible for people to invent

new technology in a way that

is not covered by existing

patents. “You can look at

patents and if you can figure

out a different way, that’s all

fine,” Abrams said. “That’s

what the patent system is all

about.”

But he also said the time-

line of how the former Snap

employees who were under

the nondisclosure agree-

ment moved to Quibi and

were later listed as inventors

in Quibi’s patent could help

Eko’s case.

“All those details matter,”

Abrams said.

Quibi said in a statement

that it is looking forward to

launching its app. The serv-

ice will begin with 50 titles,

including the thriller “Sur-

vive,” starring Sophie Turn-

er, formerly of “Game of

Thrones.” Quibi will cost

$4.99 a month with ads and

$7.99 without ads.

Quibi is sued over ‘turnstyle’ feature

QUIBI,led by Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, left, and Chief Executive Meg Whitman, is being sued over a

feature that enables users to shift their viewpoint in a video by turning their phone vertically or horizontally.

Robyn BeckAFP/Getty Images

Interactive video firm

Eko accuses the

streaming service set

to launch April 6 of

infringing on patent.

By Wendy Lee

Walmart Inc. started an
emergency leave policy to
help allay employee con-
cerns about the escalating
coronavirus outbreak after
an employee tested positive
for the illness.
Effective immediately,
Walmart will allow employ-
ees to stay home if they are
unable to work or feel “un-
comfortable” at work, ac-
cording to a memo seen by
Bloomberg News. To be paid
for the time, employees will

still need to use regular paid-

time-off options, it said.

The retailer will also pay

employees for as long as two

weeks if they or their work-

place is placed under quar-

antine, and such absences

won’t count against attend-

ance, it said. And if employ-

ees can’t return to work after

that time, “additional pay

replacement” may be pro-

vided for up to 26 weeks for

full-time and part-time

hourly employees, Walmart

said.

The coronavirus out-

break has thrust corporate

policies on paid leave and

workplace practices into

sharp focus, especially for

the retail and restaurant

industries, where so many

employees are needed at

stores.

While companies such as

Twitter Inc., Microsoft Corp.

and Amazon.com Inc. have

instructed thousands of em-

ployees to work from home if

they can, Costco Wholesale

Corp. said it couldn’t allow

corporate employees to

work remotely, but said they

could use vacation or sick

time to stay home if they’re

concerned or consider

themselves at high risk.

Walmart said last week

that it was limiting all cross-

border international travel

to just “business critical”

trips and also restricting do-

mestic travel. It also said it

would cancel a conference in

Dallas.

The Walmart employee

who tested positive for co-

ronavirus works at a store in

Cynthiana, Ky., and is im-

proving, Walmart said.

Bakewell writes for

Bloomberg.

Walmart starts emergency leave policy

By Sally Bakewell