Pixar Bracing for Possible Layoffs This Year
Layoffs are expected to hit Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios later this year.
Tech Crunch, which first reported the news, suggested that this could affect as much as 20 percent of Pixar’s 1,300 workforce, though The Hollywood Reporter understands this estimate is higher than what is actually being planned. According to Tech Crunch, layoffs may include employees hired to create content for Disney+.
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THR has reached out to Pixar for comment.
If layoffs do occur, it would follow another rare round of layoffs at the Disney-owned studio. Last June, Pixar was hit by the Disney layoffs, which affected 75 employees, including Lightyear director Angus MacLane and producer Galyn Susman.
Since the start of the pandemic, Pixar — which maintains its campus in Emeryville, outside San Francisco — has seen its remarkable success streak suffer. That includes Lightyear, its 2023 return to theatrical exhibition, which flopped.
It rebounded with 2023’s Elemental, which brought in nearly $500 million worldwide and last fall became the most watched movie premiere of the year on Disney+, putting it among the streaming service’s top 10 movie premieres of all time, according to the studio. It recently earned a Golden Globe nom and, yesterday, six Annie Award nominations, though it was snubbed in the top category for best animated feature. The film landed a PGA nom Friday morning, as well.
Still, pre-pandemic Pixar releases such as The Incredibles 2 (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019) both topped $1 billion. In an apparent effort to help revive theatrical exhibition, Pixar’s trio of releases that went straight to Disney+ during the pandemic — 2020’s Oscar-winning Soul, 2021’s Luca and 2022’s Turning Red — will all get theatrical rereleases in 2024. That starts today with the release of Soul.
Meanwhile, Inside Out 2, the sequel to Pixar’s 2015 film that won the best animated feature Oscar, is set to open in theaters June 14. The studio’s original alien tale titled Elio is scheduled for a 2025 release and a fifth Toy Story movie has also been announced.
Pixar’s sister company, Walt Disney Animation Studios, has also struggled, including with 2023’s centennial release Wish, which earned just $210 million worldwide and this week failed to earn PGA and Annie nominations.
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