The latest round of job cuts at Disney has hit Pixar harder than any other division, with the animation studio set to eliminate 108 positions at its headquarters in Emeryville, California.
According to a July 21 notice filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, the layoffs will affect employees across several teams, including editors, technical directors, and software engineers, The Mercury News reported.
The cuts are part of a broader restructuring across Disney that also affected employees at ESPN, National Geographic, Disney Entertainment Television, and Disney Studios. But Pixar accounted for the largest share of the layoffs.
Most of the affected Pixar employees are expected to leave in September, while additional reductions are scheduled for November, December, and January.
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“After careful evaluation of many factors, Pixar has made the decision to permanently reduce the size of the workforce at Pixar’s facility located at 1200 Park Ave.,” as per the WARN notice, Reema Batnagar, Pixar’s vice president of people.
The filing also clarified that “Affected employees do not have bumping rights,” meaning senior employees whose positions are eliminated cannot replace junior workers in other roles. Pixar further stated in the notice that “None of them is represented by a union.”
The layoffs come even as “Toy Story 5” continues a strong theatrical run and is nearing the $1 billion mark at the global box office. Still, recent box office results from other Pixar releases appear to have weighed on the studio’s overall performance.
According to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to TheWrap, part of the decision was influenced by the performance of “Hoppers,” which has earned $389.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $150 million. Industry analysts generally estimate that a film must generate roughly two to two-and-a-half times its production budget globally to break even after accounting for marketing and distribution costs.
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Pixar’s previous animated feature “Elio,” also struggled commercially, bringing in $154 million worldwide compared with an estimated production budget of between $150 million and $200 million. The mixed financial performance of the studio’s recent releases comes as Disney continues to streamline operations across several of its business units.
The latest layoffs represent Pixar’s biggest workforce reduction since 2024, when the studio cut about 175 jobs, roughly 14% of its staff, as production on “Inside Out 2” came to an end. Those layoffs took place before the film went on to become a global blockbuster, earning $1.69 billion at the worldwide box office. As a result, employees who lost their jobs before the release were not eligible to receive bonuses tied to the film’s commercial success.