Pixar, the animation powerhouse known for pulling at heartstrings and striking box office gold alike, is set to undergo layoffs this year. Known for blockbuster hits like Finding Nemo and Toy Story, the studio will trim its workforce all in the name of streaming profitability for its parent company, Disney Studios.
As per a report by TechCrunch, sources within the American studio are buzzing about cuts as steep as 20%, potentially shrinking Pixar’s workforce from 1,300 down to a figure under 1,000. Pixar, however, stated that those numbers might be a bit overblown. The final tally is still up in the air, tangled in factors like production schedules and what new wonders Disney will be greenlighting next.
Going deeper, it appears that the animators who were hired to jazz up Disney+’s content roster are the ones getting the chop. Despite Disney+ increasing its subscriptions (estimates put it at around 7 million new users in Q4), soaring past expectations, and bringing its total to an incredible 150 million, the House of Mouse’s streaming division still isn’t safe The service’s ad-supported tier is growing, sure, but turning a profit is a whole different story.
Now that it seems to have felt the pinch in ad revenue and streaming losses, Disney wants to tighten the belt and get somewhere around $7.5 billion in savings. Bob Iger claims recent company-wide restructuring brought in “tremendous efficiencies.” Having slashed its losses from nearly $1.5 billion to a more palatable $387 million in the last quarter of 2023, it’s hard to argue with Iger on this.
Still, many will be wondering why Pixar is being targeted for layoffs, especially given the fact that it produced Elemental, one of the most-watched films on Disney+. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red might not have been profitable for the studio due to the direct-to-streaming format, but that was not a challenge limited to Disney since all studios were affected by the closure of theaters as a result of the pandemic.
There’s also the issue of audiences getting tired of formulaic stories that lack any hint of creativity or original thought. Coco was the last original Pixar flick to break the half-billion mark at the box office, and that was back in 2017. Since then, the only films that have breached this milestone were Toy Story 4 and Incredibles 2, which all grossed over $1 billion (with the latter becoming the highest-grossing Pixar film).
Does this mean audiences simply prefer sequels over fresh new IPs? Disney seems to think so. This year, Pixar will be looking to charm viewers again with an Inside Out sequel, which might just be the ticket to keeping the studio’s numbers in the green zone.
Ultimately, these rounds of layoffs will force Pixar to find a balance between the magic of storytelling and the cold, hard reality of dollars and cents. After all, the alternative might be Pixar and all its assets getting absorbed by Walt Disney Animation Studios, which would mark the end of an era for one of the most successful animation studios.
