As part of the 7,000 positions eliminated at the Walt Disney Company, 75 of those came from Pixar Animation Studios including some of the folks behind Lightyear, according to Reuters.
What’s Happening:
- Pixar Animation Studios has reportedly eliminated 75 positions at the acclaimed animation house, the first time cuts were made at the studio since 2013.
- Notably, two of the cuts were the director and producer behind the recent film, Lightyear. Producer Galyn Susman had been at the studio since the release of Toy Story back in 1995, and Director Angus MacLane has been at the studio for 26 years, contributing to WALL-E, Coco, Toy Story 4 and others.
- Reports also indicate that Michael Agulnek, Pixar's vice president of worldwide publicity since 2015, was also laid off.
- The cuts are part of the third wave of layoffs and position eliminations promised by Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger that took place just ahead of Memorial Day weekend last month.
- Iger announced these cuts earlier this year as part of an effort to achieve $5.5 billion in cost savings. Of that, $2.5 billion represents “non-content costs” (including labor costs) and $1 billion of those targeted cost-reductions were already underway in February.
- Disney is aiming for an annualized reduction of $3 billion in non-sports content costs, expected to be realized over the next several years
- The elimination of 7,000 positions (not all of them occupied at the time of elimination), represent approximately 3.2 percent of The Walt Disney Company’s worldwide staff of approximately 220,000 as of October 2022.
- Pixar Animation Studios, by comparison, employs about 1,200 people and the 75 layoffs are quite notable as the studio is one of the main creative forces generating franchises and characters that drive revenue across The Walt Disney Company.
- The last time positions were eliminated at Pixar was back in 2013, after the studio announced the delay of the upcoming film The Good Dinosaur, which was largely plagued by creative indecision. About 30 positions were eliminated at that time.
- Lightyear, released last year and had a reported budget of $200 million, and only brought in a modest $226.7 million in worldwide ticket sales, and received a mixed critical reception. Incredibles 2 was released back in 2018, reportedly with a similar production budget, and a total worldwide box office of $1.2 billion.
- Lightyear also depicted a same-sex relationship, and as such, could not be shown in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries, impacting its global box office take.
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