Pixar Bleeds Hundreds Of Jobs In Disney’s Biggest Shake-Up Of The Year
Pixar has spent 2026 riding one of its strongest stretches in years, with ‘Toy Story 5’ earning more than 957 million dollars at the global box office since its release last month, while the original film ‘Hoppers’ earned critical acclaim and had a solid showing in theaters after debuting in March. For a studio that had weathered years of streaming era uncertainty, the momentum felt like a genuine turning point.
That momentum is now colliding with a harder reality inside the Walt Disney Company. Under CEO Josh D’Amaro, the company has been steadily restructuring its operations throughout 2026, following a January consolidation of its marketing division and a subsequent round of cuts across its TV and movie studios, ESPN, and its product and technology unit.
That backdrop is what makes the newest news hit so hard. A post from entertainment outlet DiscussingFilm on X, citing a Variety report, revealed Disney is laying off several hundred people company wide, with the majority of the studio side cuts landing at Pixar. Industry outlets quickly confirmed the scope, reporting that the cuts are hitting corporate functions, ESPN, Disney Entertainment Television, and Disney Studios all at once.
The numbers paint a clear picture of just how concentrated the pain is at the animation studio. 116 people were cut on the Pixar side alone, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, while National Geographic is expected to be hit hardest on the Disney Entertainment Television side. Meanwhile, ESPN’s cuts are tied to the network’s ongoing integration of NFL Network, adding another layer to what is clearly a company wide reset rather than a Pixar specific correction.
Disney has been careful to frame the move as routine housekeeping rather than a red flag. A company spokesperson described the changes as part of Disney’s continual evaluation of how it manages resources and reinvests across the company as the industry evolves, a line echoed in TheWrap’s reporting on the cuts. That messaging tracks with comments D’Amaro made earlier this year, when he told employees the company needed to streamline its operations across various parts of the business, a memo first detailed by Variety.
For longtime Pixar watchers, the sting is familiar. The studio’s last layoffs came in 2024, when it cut about 175 jobs, or 14 percent of its staff, and this new round is expected to be the largest since that summer, which came right after ‘Inside Out 2’ crossed 1.69 billion dollars worldwide. It is a strange pattern for the studio to keep landing blockbuster wins on screen while still absorbing major cuts behind the scenes.
With ‘Toy Story 5’ still playing in theaters and Pixar’s next slate still taking shape, fans are left wondering what this leaner version of the studio will actually look like going forward. Do you think Pixar can keep delivering the box office magic of ‘Toy Story 5’ while operating with several hundred fewer people behind the scenes?
