The Scoop: Pixar cuts 175 jobs

For decades, the Pixar name was ubiquitous with high-quality animation and top-flight storytelling. But after years of films and television programs with middling reviews and less-than-expected performances at the box office, Pixar is going back to what it’s best at — feature films. Unfortunately, this move is also paired with a staffing cut.

According to The New York Times, Pixar announced it was cutting 14% of its staff earlier this week. Pixar president Jim Morris said that the move was meant to coincide with “the return to our focus on feature films,” according to an internal memo viewed by the Times. Around 175 employees will be impacted.

The Times piece attributes many of Pixar’s issues to Disney’s emphasis on its streaming service, Disney+. During the height of the pandemic, three Pixar films were released on the service and bypassed theaters altogether, stripping them of the anticipation and fanfare Pixar films have garnered in the past. Disney’s major push to streaming in 2020 aimed to earn 260 million subscribers across the globe, but Disney+ has just 154 million subscribers to this day, marking a major strategic failing.

Why it matters: From Toy Story in 1995 through Inside Out in 2015, you’d be hard-pressed to find a weak link in the Pixar catalog. However, the shift to streaming and the demand for more output that reportedly stretched writers thin was ultimately impactful, resulting in less well-received and financially successful films.

But the big lesson here is, if you’ve got a product that people love, try not to mess with it too much. Whether it’s Pixar today or New Coke from the ‘80s, if you start toying around with the thing people like, they might come to not like it quite as much anymore. The layoffs and openness to a brand refocus serve as a potential signal to audiences and stakeholders that Pixar is ready to get back to what it does best, which is telling great visual stories.

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Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.