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In what seems to be a cautionary tale for the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger, Disney continues to fire people. This time, the most affected divisions are, once again, Pixar and National Geographic.
Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2017, and it was completed in 2019. The House of Mouse continues to be one of the dominant studios out there, and it's the only one to have surpassed $3 billion at the box office this year. However, even its box office success is no guarantee, as Deadline reports Disney is on a new layoff spree.
Disney's Layoffs Continue
This year alone, thousands of Disney employees have been let go. A report that 1,000 employees were at risk after the CEO shakeup from Bob Iger to Josh D'Amaro came out in April, and those included multiple studios, including Marvel and Pixar, and entire divisions, including the home entertainment team, and many others.
This comes after massive layoff waves in previous years, which included Pixar in May 2024, after Inside Out 2's success, and multiple workers from ABC News and its TV division in 2025.
On July 21, 2026, multiple things were happening. ESPN announced a series of layoffs tied to a recent deal with the NFL. Deadline continues that Disney Entertainment Television and Studios employees, among other units, have been notified that they are being let go. The new CEO is not expected to react to the layoffs, according to a source.
When it comes to Disney Entertainment Television, the number of jobs cut is just under 100, with the most affected teams being at National Geographic, which included the cable network as well as editorial and operations. About a dozen ABC News staffers have been impacted, with isolated layoffs in other DET divisions. There aren't many details about the Pixar layoffs, but they come despite Toy Story 5's megasuccess.
In an April memo to the staff, D'Amaro, who succeeded Bob Iger, addressed the layoffs, noting, "Over the past several months, we have looked at ways in which we can streamline our operations in various parts of the company to ensure we deliver the world-class creativity and innovation our fans value and expect from Disney. Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce to meet tomorrow’s needs."
As of the end of fiscal 2025, the House of Mouse had 231,000 employees – roughly 172,000 in the U.S. and 59,000 elsewhere.
Disney Grossed More Than $3 Billion This Year
In late June, it was confirmed that Disney is still dominating the box office. Even though two films have crossed the billion-dollar milestone so far, Universal and Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Lionsgate's Michael, Disney is still the first studio to gross $3 billion in 2026.
The studio is expecting its $1 billion film with Toy Story 5, which has grossed $957.5 million so far since its June 19 release. Moana wasn't the hit Disney was hoping for, as it only grossed $177.3 million worldwide against a $250 million budget, but it's still trying to cover its initial cost.
Among its hits so far were The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($677.6M), Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu ($323M), Hoppers ($372M), and Send Help ($94M), and it's still to debut Ridley Scott's new sci-fi movie The Dog Stars (under 20th Century Studios), Hexed (The Walt Disney Studio), and Avengers: Doomsday, from Marvel Studios.
