Walt Disney Co. has initiated a fresh round of layoffs, with corporate employees emerging as the latest victims of the Burbank media and entertainment giant’s ongoing $7.5-billion cost-cutting effort.
This week, Disney is in the process of eliminating about 300 jobs, according to Deadline. In a statement provided Thursday to The Times, the House of Mouse said it is looking to manage its resources and costs “more effectively” in order to “fuel the state-of-the-art creativity and innovation that consumers value and expect from Disney.”
“As part of this ongoing optimization work, we have been reviewing the cost structure for our corporate-level functions and have determined there are ways for them to operate more efficiently,” the Disney spokesperson added.
The most recent wave of cuts is reportedly expected to span a number of Disney’s departments, including legal, human resources, finance and communications.
Last year, Disney embarked on a mission to cut 7,000 positions to reduce costs and turn a profit for its streaming business. With Chief Executive Bob Iger back at the helm, the company worked fast, eliminating 4,000 staff members by April 2023 and increasing its target to 8,000.
In May 2024, Disney-owned animation studio Pixar reduced its staff by 14%, or 175 employees, while the famed unit was experiencing a box office slump (in part due to the company’s controversial decision to send multiple pandemic-era titles directly to streaming even after movie theaters began to reopen).
The Pixar curse has since been lifted, thanks to the summer box office sensation that was “Inside Out 2.”
The job cuts continued in July at Disney Entertainment Television, which lost 2% of its workforce, amounting to 140 jobs. The TV staff at National Geographic was hit particularly hard.
Across the industry, major Hollywood studios have been tightening their belts and decreasing their output after overspending during the so-called streaming wars in an effort to compete with Netflix. Entertainment and media companies, including Paramount, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery, have also been rocked by layoffs.
Times staff writer Samantha Masunaga contributed to this report.
