Disney Reportedly Weighs Thousands of Layoffs as Managers Are Told to Slash Costs

Disney has spent much of this year in restructuring mode, and a new report suggests the effort is far from over. The company is reportedly considering another major round of Disney layoffs, one that could be larger than anything it has done since the new CEO took over. Nothing has been confirmed, but the details are already rippling through Hollywood.

The backdrop matters here. Josh D’Amaro was named CEO on February 3 and officially took over on March 18, ending Bob Iger’s 52-year association with the company. He came from the parks side of the business, where he was chairman of Disney Experiences, and his first months have been busy with cuts and reorganizations.

Now Bloomberg News has reported that Disney is moving toward thousands of job cuts and has asked some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings, citing people familiar with the matter. Reuters relayed the report on Monday, November 2. The savings could come from job eliminations as well as other expense reductions, and the report did not say how many positions are at stake.

According to the report, some Disney operations are expected to bear a larger share of the cuts than others. Which divisions will be hit hardest has not been made public. That uncertainty is a big deal for a company whose workforce spans movie studios, television, sports, streaming, theme parks and consumer products.

Scale is part of the story. Disney employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025, and the Wall Street Journal has reported that roughly 80% of them work in the experiences division, which includes parks, resorts and consumer products. The bulk of earlier layoffs landed in entertainment, ESPN and corporate units, while parks and the cruise line kept expanding.

When Reuters reached out, Disney did not immediately respond, and the company has not confirmed the plans. The number of positions affected, the total savings and the timeline all remain unclear.

The cuts are not framed as pure belt-tightening. D’Amaro reportedly aims to reinvest part of the savings into film and TV programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ships. That mirrors his message in August, when he said the company wanted to free up more money for growth and was looking at different ways to reduce costs.

The investment targets line up with the company’s pipeline. Disney’s parks division recently reported a 10% rise in revenue and 20% operating income growth, with attendance up 4%. D’Amaro has pointed to major attractions at every site, including Villains Land in Orlando, the Avengers Campus expansion in Anaheim and the previously announced cruise ship expansion.

In other words, the playbook appears to be trimming some areas while pouring money into the businesses that are growing fastest. That is a familiar corporate formula, but it is rarely painless for the people on the receiving end.

This would not be Disney’s first round of layoffs under D’Amaro. In April, the company began eliminating around 1,000 positions, with cuts touching marketing, television, the movie studio, ESPN, product and technology, and corporate functions. Marvel was among the affected groups, with reductions at both Marvel Entertainment in New York and Marvel Studios in Burbank.

Further cuts followed over the summer. Several hundred employees were let go across Disney Entertainment divisions in June, a few hundred more across human resources and technology in September, and between 100 and 200 jobs in the theme parks division. Going back further, Disney announced about 7,000 job cuts in 2023 as part of a plan to save $5.5 billion, and it has eliminated more than 8,000 jobs since Iger returned in 2022.

The wider industry is under the same pressure. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all trimmed staff, and more layoffs are expected if Paramount completes its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Studios are also adjusting to smaller streaming profits compared with what linear television used to deliver, along with weaker box office returns and intense competition from tech companies.

For now, the report leaves more questions than answers. Fans of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm will want to know whether creative output could be affected, while parks and cruise employees will be watching to see if their divisions are spared. Details could emerge quickly, since Disney has often announced cuts through internal memos that leak within hours.

The next confirmation point is likely to be official word from Disney itself, whether through a staff memo or its upcoming earnings call. Until then, the reported 20% savings target is the clearest signal of how aggressive the next phase of restructuring could be.

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