Pixar Will Be Laying Off 14% of Its Workforce
The long-anticipated Pixar layoffs have finally arrived, with the studio announcing that it will be letting go of approximately 175 employees. That number makes up roughly 14% of the company’s workforce.
The layoffs had been expected since January when it was reported that Pixar would soon lay off 20% of its employees. The final number fell significantly short of that.
Photo: Disney/Pixar
“Calendar invites to speak with a leader have already gone out to those individuals, and we anticipate we will have connected with everyone impacted by the end of the day,” Pixar president Jim Morris wrote in a memo to Pixar staff.
It Has Been a Rough Few Years For Pixar
While last year’s Elemental would prove to be a surprise success for Pixar after a disastrous opening weekend, it has been a tumultuous few years for the studio.
Once considered the gold standard in animation, the studio has since found trouble at the box office.
Photo: Disney +
While 2020’s Onward could largely blame its box office woes on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022’s Lightyear was a full-blown bomb. The studio has also released Soul, Luca, and Turning Red straight to Disney+, which may have led many fans to stay home and wait for Pixar films to arrive on streaming.
Photo: Pixar
“In the long run, there’s been a bit of a mixed blessing because we’ve trained audiences that these films will be available for you on Disney+. And it’s more expensive for a family of four to go to a theater when they know they can wait and it’ll come out on the platform,” Pixar CCO Pete Docter said about streaming.
What’s Next?
Pixar will return to theaters this summer with Inside Out 2. According to early tracking, the film could be the first release of 2024 to score a $100 opening weekend at the domestic box office.
Photo: IMDB
Next year, the studio will release an original film titled Elio, followed by Toy Story 5 in 2026.
Photo: Disney
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