Disney and Pixar layoffs 14% | Wilnesh News

Pixar Animation Studios is seeing long-awaited layoffs today.

A spokesman for the parent company said that Pixar will lay off about 175 employees, accounting for about 14% of the studio’s staff. walt disney told CNBC. The layoffs come as Chief Executive Bob Iger works toward his top priority of focusing on the quality of content, rather than quantity.

Disney’s other businesses also suffered layoffs last year, but Pixar’s layoffs were delayed due to production progress. The animation studio was initially expected to lay off 20% of its staff.

Iger, who returned as CEO in late 2022, has been working to turn around the company’s box office woes, spurred by the company’s content decisions and pandemic shutdowns. While many of Disney’s franchises, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, have had mixed box office success, its animated films have faced challenges resonating with audiences.

When theaters closed during the pandemic, Disney tried to provide content to the company’s fledgling streaming service Disney+, streamlining its creative team and sending theatrical films directly to digital platforms.

The decision has parents seeking out new Disney releases on streaming rather than in theaters, even if Disney chooses to return its movies to the big screen. To make matters worse, many viewers began to feel that the company’s content had become too existential and too focused on social issues that were beyond the reach of children.

As a result, no Disney animated feature from Pixar or Walt Disney Animation has grossed more than $480 million at the global box office since 2019. Previously, “Coco” had a global box office of US$796 million and a global box office of US$1.24 billion, and “Toy Story 4” had a global box office of US$1.07 billion.

With Iger back at the helm, Pixar will refocus on theatrical distribution and no longer produce short-form series for Disney+.

—CNBC’s Julia Boorstin contributed to this report