Disney Plans to Lay Off More Than 7,000 Employees
Movieguide® Contributor
On top of the layoffs that were just made by Disney in 2022, they plan to put 7,000 others on the chopping block. Some employees will be informed as early as Monday.
The layoffs will affect every part of the world where Disney operates and will include Disney TV, film, theme parks, and corporate teams.
The plan is to lay off approximately 15 percent of the staff at Disney. The layoffs vary from high-level executives to people who work in the gutters.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, announced that his effort is to save $5.5 billion in costs, therefore, cutting off 7,000 people.
Disney has noticed that they are failing to gain any traction with its consumers. With Marvel and Star Wars not living up to their standards, many viewers would rather watch re-runs of old TV shows.
Movieguide® recently reported on Disney’s layoffs:
The reorganization of the entertainment giant would dismantle the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution group created by former Disney CEO Bob Chapek in 2020. Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said that this change could save the company $5.5 billion.
“Our new structure is aimed at returning greater authority to our creative leaders and making them accountable for how their content performs financially,” Bob Iger, Disney’s current CEO, said.
“Our former structure severed that link and must be restored. Moving forward, our creative teams will determine what content we’re making, how it is distributed and monetized, and how it gets marketed,” he added.
The new structure will consist of three divisions.
Disney Entertainment will oversee the movie and TV assets, including Disney+. ESPN will head ESPN and ESPN+, while Parks, Experiences and Products will oversee the theme parks and consumer products.
The 7,000 jobs set to be cut would represent about 3 percent of the company’s workforce. Due to the nature of the company’s reorganization, many of these job cuts are expected to occur in the Disney Entertainment and ESPN divisions rather than in Parks, Experiences and Products.
This restructuring comes at a crucial time for Iger, as this plan is released alongside Disney’s first earnings report since Iger returned to the company.
While the company’s Q4 revenue and Disney+ subscriptions performed slightly better than projected, investors are still waiting for Iger’s plan to expand streaming and improve profitability.
Iger’s return as CEO in 2022 came with a renewed focus on creativity. This restructure is expected to help the mission as he returns greater authority to the company’s creative teams.
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