Staff Reports
The personnel of Pixar Animation Studios is undergoing significant changes. The Walt Disney Company owns the studio, and it is cutting off 175 workers, or around 14% of its workforce. The largest shift in staff since the studio's founding is a result of Disney CEO Bob Iger's strategy to reorganize the business such that quality is prioritized over quantity of content produced.
Jim Morris, the president of Pixar, stated in a memo that workers whose jobs are affected will shortly be notified. The studio, best known for Toy Story and Finding Nemo, intends to switch its emphasis from producing TV shows for Disney+, its streaming service, to producing more motion pictures for theaters.
The studio recently said it would be letting go of 75 staff, the first time in ten years, and this wave of layoffs follows that announcement. Pixar has been having financial difficulties lately; the majority of its last six films have either been published directly to Disney+ or have not performed well commercially. The previous film, Elemental, started off slowly in the theater but ended up doing better than anticipated, grossing just about $500 million worldwide.
Not just Pixar is having difficulties. Disney has had a difficult time overall, as seen by the majority of its 2023 movies, which either underperformed or failed at the box office. Indeed, it was disclosed earlier this month that Disney published four of the top five box office bombs of 2023, each movie which lost over $100 million, including one that lost over $230 million.
