Another company-wide layoff heartbreak hit Walt Disney Co employees on Tuesday (US time). Several hundred jobs were cut across multiple corporate functions, according to a Disney spokesperson cited by Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and other US outlets. While the iconic Pixar banner saw the most cuts on the film studio side, National Geographic bore the brunt of the new cuts in the TV business.
The latest upheaval marks the third wave of layoffs at the entertainment giant this year. Initially, Disney consolidated its marketing division under Asad Ayaz’s leadership in January, triggering some cuts along the way. Thereafter, in April, CEO Josh D’Amaro sounded the alarm about the company’s broader restructuring efforts in an April memo to employees. At the time, 1,000 employees were impacted.
Although the new round of layoffs this week is not as devastating in scale as the one in April, Tuesday’s cuts reiterate what D’Amaro wrote in his memo months ago:
“Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney. Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs.”
Here’s all we know about the July 21 Disney layoffs:
Pixar worst hit by new Disney layoffs despite box office milestone
On the studio side, Pixar Animation emerged among those hit the worst by layoffs fuelled by the entertainment giant’s intentions to streamline its operations.
An internal source cited by The Los Angeles Times stated that the commercially successful American animation studio behind iconic films like The Incredibles, the Toy Story franchise and Inside Out, among others, is axing less than 10% of its staff. Most of these cuts reportedly affected production and operations.
Shockingly, the beloved banner suffered the ravages of the cost-cutting efforts despite enjoying a successful year so far, especially with well-acclaimed entertainers like Hoppers and Toy Story 5 debuting in theatres recently.
The latter film has particularly emerged as a massive hit for Pixar. Having come out last month, the new installment responsible for introducing fan-favourites like Woody and Buzz Lightyear has earned more than $957 million at the global box office. A month ago, Toy Story 5’s historic debut proved that nostalgia continues to have a strong hold over audiences when done right.
The movie secured the biggest domestic debut of the year in the US, earning $160 million from 4,425 North America theaters. Given the opening figures, it now also celebrates the second-largest animated opening weekend in history, just behind Incredibles 2’s $182.7 million-mark.
Other Disney functions impacted by Tuesday’s layoffs
In addition to axing workforce from the Pixar and Nat Geo offices, Disney’s third round of layoffs impacted several other corporate functions, including those at ESPN, NFL Network, Disney Entertainment Television and Disney’s studios.
Most of the behind-the-scenes staff at ESPN also got the bad news on Tuesday, owing to the sports network’s acquisition of the NFL Network earlier this year.
“Over the past several months, we’ve made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today,” Jimmy Pitaro told staff in a memo obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
“While most of the job impacts are tied to the acquisition, we will also notify colleagues in other parts of the company today that their positions have been impacted. We are committed to treating employees with compassion and respect and to providing support as they navigate this transition.”
Reports about former NFL star Ryan Clark being fired by ESPN went viral a day before company officials formally broke the news about the company-wide cuts. New York Times’ The Athletic cited insiders claiming that Clark, who has served as a football analyst at ESPN for over a decade and was expected to head the network’s forthcoming first-ever Super Bowl coverage, was informed about being laid off during a live broadcast on Monday itself.
Longtime SportsCenter anchor Karl Ravech is yet another high-profile on-air personality at ESPN who has been let go as part of the new layoffs, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
