Disney has announced that it is taking drastic measures to combat the brutal beating that it took in 2023. The media giant will be making massive layoffs to its payroll. These layoffs will likely have a meaningful effect on the Pixar Animation Studios, a studio that is responsible for some of the greatest animated flicks of all time.

According to a report from Tech Crunch, Pixar is facing layoffs to start off the calendar year of 2024 after receiving news of smaller, yet similar, layoffs in the summer of 2023. According to the report, the number of those affected by the layoffs may be as high as 20% of the company that currently employs roughly 1,300 people.

Tech Crunch notes that while some sources at the company said that layoffs would reach that high 20% benchmark, Pixar insisted that the number was far too high. Pixar also made sure to note that the exact size and severity of the budget cuts have not been fully determined and that a review of the company is still ongoing.

Another interesting piece of information came later in the report, with Pixar noting that the layoffs are not imminent and that they will take place later in the calendar year of 2024. That would coincide with a reduced slate of movies coming out of the studio, which has struggled to maintain its once astronomical popularity in its most recent releases.

Back in June of 2023, The American Tribune reported on the layoffs that hammered the folks over at Pixar and forced the studio into its first major workforce cut in the last decade. At the time, that layoff took away 75 jobs from the payroll at Pixar and even saw some executives taken out after the abysmal release of “Lightyear,” a “Toy Story” spinoff that bombed badly at the box office.

CEO Bob Iger talked about the importance of online streaming for the company, with its Disney+ service having struggled in 2023. According to Tech Crunch, Iger has plans to get the service out of the red by the end of Q4 this year, citing cost-cutting measures and greater efficiency as his reasons to believe that is feasible.

Disney also appears to have altered its release strategy in recent months, especially following the release of “Elemental,” a recent film out of Pixar. The film plummeted to a terrible opening weekend at the box office, and appeared to be following the same trend of recent Pixar release “Lightyear.” The film was subsequently added to the Disney+ streaming platform, where it saw massive success in front of a large audience.

As was the case in June 2023, these recent reports of layoffs are sparking the interest of everyone in the film industry. A giant studio like Pixar is a massive player in film, and any moves that the company makes are put under a microscope to be dissected as a sign of growing trends in the industry. The final headcount of the layoffs is not yet clear, but he magnitude of the news is being felt all over the entertainment world.