Credit: Disney/Pixar, edited by ITMPixar Animation Studios is preparing to fire potentially hundreds of workers, continuing the Walt Disney Company’s ongoing rounds of sudden layoffs and budget cuts, multiple sources report.
It is no secret that the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries, like Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm, have been having a rough financial time of late. Despite owning many of the world’s most popular film franchises, Disney faced a huge number of flops in 2023, eventually losing its status as the world’s highest-grossing film studio to Universal Studios for the first time in years.
The solution to this seems to be straightforward. CEO Bob Iger spent the last year laying off employees, dismantling entire corporate divisions, and slashing budgets, and now Pixar is reportedly doing the same.
Related: Disney Moves Forward With Drastic Layoffs, Fires Employees on The Spot
According to TechCrunch, anonymous insiders first reported and Pixar has confirmed that mass firings will happen in 2024. While there has not been an official announcement from Pixar, sources say the company may lay off as much as 20% of its 1,300 employees; Pixar denies that exact number but has not provided any details.
Reuters independently confirmed the company plans to fire an unknown number of employees, largely employees who had been hired to work on streaming content for the Disney+ platform. In June 2023, Pixar laid off 75 employees following the failure of the Toy Story spinoff Lightyear (2022); it appears that the critically acclaimed animation studio is not done cleaning house.
Related: ESPN Personality Calls Out Disney Layoffs “I Can’t Explain Bob Iger’s Thinking.”
Reports that Pixar is planning to fire potentially hundreds of workers fall in line with Bob Iger’s promises to reduce liabilities for shareholders by any means necessary after he returned to replace his successor, CEO Bob Chapek. 2023 was marked by layoff announcement after layoff announcement for Disney, but even that still left the company with massive financial losses.
It is no surprise that Pixar would continue in its parent company’s footsteps when it comes to cutting costs, but it will just have to remain to be seen what effect this has on its new projects in development.
What do you think of Disney and Pixar’s layoff plans? Let us know in the comments below.