Long the gold standard of the American animation industry, Pixar is, amidst some shakier recent history, now underdoing what is being described as “the biggest restructuring” in the company’s 30+ year history.
That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter, which writes today that the studio is now in the midst of laying off “approximately 14 percent of Pixar’s workforce, or around 175 employees, will be let go.” They note that “before the reductions, approximately 1,300 people worked at the animation studio.”
The layoffs had been anticipated for months, and follow various other cost-cutting measures at Pixar’s parent company, Disney.
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For decades, Pixar had a nearly unblemished record of critical and commercial success. But while Pixar’s movie have generally received solid reviews in recent years, their projects have not generated nearly as much revenue. During the pandemic, Disney chose to shift the studio’s features to Disney+ premieres, bypassing multiplexes entirely. Then Pixar’s first return to theaters, Lightyear, was a disappointment both with fans and with the company’s accountants. (The film grossed just $226 million worldwide, a fraction of 2019’s Toy Story 4 — which also happens to be the last Pixar title to gross more than $1 billion worldwide.)
Per THR, moving forward Pixar “will no longer be focusing on direct-to-streaming series, but on its feature films.” The studio’s next movie, Inside Out 2, is due out in theaters in less than a month. It’s scheduled to premiere on June 14. In addition to films like Luca, Turning Red and Soul, Pixar previously made Disney+ television series like Cars on the Road, Forky Asks a Question, and Dug Days.
The studio is also still working on an upcoming Disney+ series called Win or Lose, about a middle school softball team. Future Pixar features include next summer’s Elio, about a kid who ventures into outer space and makes contact with aliens, and a fifth Toy Story movie. Don’t expect that one to go straight to Disney+.
