Disney Slashes Hundreds of Jobs, Pixar Bears the Brunt

The Odd Timing of Pixar's Layoffs

On Tuesday morning, Disney terminated several hundred staff members in various departments, and Pixar endured the brunt of the reductions. According to TheWrap and its sources, at least 116 people lost their jobs at the Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, California. Multiple Disney divisions felt the impact, among them the company's television production branch, its film studio, and the sports channel ESPN.

These job cuts occurred while Pixar's latest film "Toy Story 5" ruled the global box office, earning around $962 million globally and heading toward the $1 billion milestone. This is also Pixar's most significant workforce reduction in two years, even though "Inside Out 2" set a record as the top-grossing animated feature ever, taking in $1.69 billion worldwide last year.

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Sources told TheWrap that the layoffs might have been partly caused by the disappointing performance of "Hopper," an original Pixar movie released earlier this year. According to reports, the film ended up just a little short of reaching its break-even point based on Hollywood's accounting methods.

Pixar's "Elio" also had a tough time at cinemas, bringing in roughly $154 million globally in 2025 while its production cost was said to be $200 million. It marked the studio's lowest-grossing film since the COVID-impacted "Onward."

ESPN and Other Divisions Feel the Pinch Too

The report indicates that National Geographic, part of Disney Entertainment, is predicted to be one of the brands most affected. The Hollywood Reporter stated that ESPN let go of multiple well-known on-air talents, such as Karl Ravech, who had anchored SportsCenter and hosted Baseball Tonight for decades, having joined the network in 1993. Ryan Clark, who had a decade-long stint as a football analyst on ESPN after his NFL career, was also let go.

In a memo sent to employees Tuesday morning, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said the company reached that choice following a thorough review of its groups and how they are organized. "Over the past several months, we've made significant progress integrating the NFL assets that we acquired into ESPN. Throughout this process, we have taken the time to carefully evaluate our collective teams, resources and organizational structure to best position us for the future. As a result, we had to make some difficult decisions about job impacts that we will be communicating today," Pitaro said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This set of layoffs represents the third time this year that the media conglomerate has reduced its workforce. Back in April, Disney cut about 1,000 positions in its TV and movie units under new CEO Josh D'Amaro. D'Amaro pointed to the necessity of making operations more efficient given the rapid changes occurring throughout the entertainment sector. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney combined its marketing teams in January under Chief Brand Officer Asad Ayaz, which resulted in further job losses in those departments.

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