Amid an unprecedented shutdown of movie theaters and entertainment production, major players are experimenting with new business models as digital platforms ascend and artists take up a DIY ethos: "You have to adapt."

Even in the best of times, Katzenberg and Meg Whitman's $2  billion mobile video platform was a high-stakes gamble. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic turning the country upside down, they are about to find out whether the millions of potential users under quarantine are a subscriber-boosting blessing or a platform-derailing curse.