Disney is preparing for thousands of job cuts, and some managers have been told to find as much as 20% in annual cost savings, Bloomberg reported Nov. 2, citing people familiar with the plans. Deadline later reported the same 20% target. Not all of the savings would come from layoffs, since some could come from trimming other expenses. The exact timing of the cuts hasn’t been set.
Disney declined to comment on the reports.
Where The Disney Layoffs Are Expected To Hit
The cuts are expected to land unevenly. According to Bloomberg, the theme parks, the TV networks and the movie studio are among the operations expected to take a bigger share than the rest of the company. Deadline also reported that the TV networks and the film studio will see reductions of varying sizes.
CEO Josh D’Amaro plans to put part of the savings back into the business, including film and TV programming, technology, theme parks and cruises, Bloomberg reported.
A Year Of Cuts Under D’Amaro
If the latest round goes ahead, it’ll be the biggest in a string of reductions since D’Amaro replaced Bob Iger as CEO on March 18.
The first round came in April and eliminated about 1,000 positions, many of them in Disney‘s marketing group. In July, several hundred more jobs were cut, with Pixar and National Geographic taking the hardest hits. About 300 employees, mostly in technology and human resources, were laid off in late September.
The Experiences division, which runs the parks, resorts and cruise line, was hit next. The Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 28 that between 100 and 200 Experiences employees were losing their jobs, mostly at Walt Disney Imagineering’s campus in Glendale, California. A California WARN notice filed Oct. 27 lists 159 permanent layoffs at that site.
The company also gave some longtime leaders a way out on their own terms. In August, Disney made a voluntary early retirement offer to eligible senior employees. Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman’s Aug. 24 letter about the offer made it clear more cuts were coming. “This is one of several actions we’re taking to reshape our organization,” Coleman wrote, adding that the company was making “involuntary staff reductions that have already begun in some areas and will continue into next year.”
What Disney’s Leaders Are Saying
Dana Walden, president and chief creative officer of The Walt Disney Company, spoke about the pressure on legacy media at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in October. “I think like all of our similarly situated competitors, and certainly all of our competitors in the tech industry, there is a need to constantly evaluate how you’re structured,” Walden said. She described tech companies as having moved in on Disney’s turf and said the company’s response is that “we must survive and thrive and grow.”
On Disney’s Aug. 5 earnings call, D’Amaro tied AI-driven efficiency to the company’s investment plans. “When our teams work smarter, we can serve more people across our parks and digital platforms and do it more cost-effectively. That frees up capital to reinvest aggressively in what drives long-term value: new content and next-generation guest experiences, as well as technology infrastructure that keeps Disney at the forefront of entertainment,” D’Amaro said.
Disney employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025, according to its annual report. That figure predates every round of cuts this year, so the company’s next annual report will be the first to show how much the workforce has changed under D’Amaro.
What’s Next
Disney hasn’t said how many jobs will be cut or which teams will be affected. The company reports fiscal fourth-quarter results Nov. 17, and executives have said they’ll update investors on their cost-cutting work. Coleman’s August letter also signaled that involuntary reductions will continue into 2027.
Don't stop here
Every Score. Every Story. One Home.
Breaking sports, entertainment and news from across the Total Apex network, updated all day.
Get the Full Story →
