Disney has today laid off hundreds of staff, with workers at Toy Story and Inside Out animation studio Pixar particularly impacted.
That’s according to a new report from TheWrap, which includes official confirmation of the job losses from a Disney spokesperson. Employees hit by redundancies also include those within the company’s Disney Studios and Television divisions and corporate functions.
“These changes are part of our continual evaluation of how we manage resources and reinvest across the company as our industry continues to evolve,” a Disney spokesperson told The Wrap.
The exact number of impacted employees has not yet been confirmed, but these losses are reportedly the largest round of layoffs at Pixar since 2024, when the company shed 14 percent of staff (around 175 employees) in reaction to a slowdown in content for streaming platform Disney+.
Two years later, these latest cuts are being blamed on Pixar’s mixed performance in recent years — with original movies (not part of existing franchises) particularly struggling.
While Toy Story 5 is now nearing a billion dollars at the box office, Pixar’s previous release Hoppers struggled to break even. This came on the back of 2025 launch Elio, another original movie, which flopped hard — handing Pixar its lowest theatrical opening weekend ever.
TheWrap said the layoffs at Pixar are “partially” being blamed on the relative underperformance of Hoppers, which made $389.5 million globally against a $150 million production budget. TheWrap said that was just shy of breaking even.
Pixar has a mixture of sequels and original movies in the works, with 2027’s Gatto to be followed by Incredibles 3 in 2028 and Coco 2 in 2029. A third film in the Monster Inc. series is also reported to be in early development.
Going forward, however, it’s reported that Pixar understands it must now make its films at a more affordable price — particularly those not part of existing franchises. This makes sense when you consider the studio’s recent hits have been franchise films (Toy Story 5, Inside Out 2), while original stories (Hoppers, Elio, Elemental) have barely broken even, or made a loss.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
