After laying off 75 people in June 2023, Pixar is said to face more layoffs in 2024 as Disney+ continues to make financial progress but still struggles to achieve profitability.
According to a new report in TechCrunch, sources at Pixar claim that the layoffs will be “significant and up to 20%.” It looks like this would bring the Pixar team from about 1,300 to about 1,000.
In response, Pixar told TechCrunch that these estimates are “too high” and that the number of employees who will be affected by these layoffs remains uncertain. Some of the deciding factors appear to be production schedules, staffing for future films, and more. Pixar also notes that layoffs are “not imminent” and will occur in the later parts of 2024.
In terms of employees who may be affected, sources indicate that some of the Pixar employees who will be laid off are those who were hired specifically for Disney+.
Disney+, as previously mentioned, is still struggling to become profitable, although it is closer than ever as Disney has said it expects to “achieve profitability in fiscal year 2024.” As part of Disney’s fourth-quarter fiscal 2023 earnings, CEO Bob Iger said the company is finally preparing to get through a “period of repair,” which unfortunately also included layoffs as part of roughly $7.5 billion in cost cuts.
Disney is laying off 7,000 employees starting in March 2023 as part of a “strategic reorganization,” and Pixar’s first 75 employees were part of that. That round of layoffs included Lightyear director Angus MacLane and Galyn Susman, the lighting supervisor who famously saved Toy Story 2 after it was accidentally deleted from Disney’s servers.
Pixar has had an interesting journey in the past few years, and Onward was a big turnaround for the company. While the film debuted in theaters on March 6, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused Disney to release the film digitally just two weeks later on March 20. It appeared on Disney+ on April 3.
All of Pixar’s next few films — Soul, Luca, and Turning Red — will go to a Disney+-only release due to concerns about the coronavirus (COVID-19). Lightyear saw a return to theaters in 2022, but ended up earning just $118.3 million in North America, besting only Onward’s $61.5 million of all Pixar films. Elemental’s 2023 performance was better despite its slow start, earning $154.4 million during its domestic run. It was also the most-watched Disney+ premiere of 2023.
Looking ahead, Pixar is scheduled to release Inside Out 2 on June 14, 2024, Elio on June 13, 2025, and Toy Story 5 in the future. Plus, Soul, Luka, and Turning Red finally get their chance to shine in theaters for the first time starting today, January 12th.
IGN has reached out to Disney for comment.
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Adam Pankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @Adam Pankhurst and on Twitch.