Disney begins third round of expected layoffs, cutting more than 2,500 jobs

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/22/media/disney-layoffs/index.html

by MDWolinski • 3 years ago

40 29 3 years ago

ameminator• 3 years ago

I always saw Disney as a sort of "cultural center" of the country. The more Disney has become disconnected from the cultural zeitgeist, inevitably its products would become less valuable. We've seen this from Star Wars, Marvel, ESPN and other properties. The legal trouble in the state of Florida is another problem on top of "quality issues" in their brands. We'll see if Disney can turn it around, but the last 5 years have really been tough on the company.

somedude895• 3 years ago

Disney used to be a brand known for creating magical experiences for children and adults alike. You turn that into a factory churning out mediocre content in large volumes and jump on a moral bandwagon that appeals only to a minority of activists and your brand loses its magic very quickly.

jackomelon• 3 years ago

Can you elaborate on what you’re referring to? Specifically the “moral bandwagon” part.

hourago• 3 years ago

and jump on a moral bandwagon that appeals only to a minority of activists

Disney includes minorities because it pays off, what does not pay off is to create bad/mediocre movies. There are many movies even more progressive than the very conservative Disney that do better just because the movies are good.

two_handfuls• 3 years ago

jump on a moral bandwagon that appeals only to a minority of activists

Are you referring to their mild criticism (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/dis...) of the state of Florida’s crusade against LGBT ?

hedora• 3 years ago

I don’t think the moral bandwagon really has anything to do with it, to be honest.

They keep firing or abusing the talent, and the people left over make poor decisions.

For instance, Disney+ launched without any content that would appeal to parents, then went all puritanical on Daryl Hannah’s butt. In top of that, it was a middle-of-the-road offering for the under 10 crowd. I’m not really sure who that product was supposed to appeal to. Maybe teenage boys like watching angsty superhero dramas?

Roughly partitioning kids cartoons from a gen-x / millennial perspective, we have:

- loony tunes (thankfully torrents still exist)

- Disney movies up to and including Beauty and the Beast

(Most of the above are somewhat culturally dated, but more kid appropriate than, say, adult swim)

- Pixar up to the Disney acquisition and third party American animation.

- Kid’s Anime

- Whatever garbage Disney produced more recently (yes, there are a half dozen exceptions, but it is almost all direct to DVD or mediocre theater releases, and I am too busy to sift through the large library of “meh”).

Disney+ is still missing third party and anime. At launch, it was missing a bunch of older Disney and Pixar stuff.

The remaining category in my list is “mostly crap, with a few gems”.

Hell, even HBO+ has more/higher-quality kid-friendly content.

Corporate ethics for the two companies in recent years have both been dismal from a red and blue perspective.

I wish we’d go back to having reasonable copyright expiration windows, so that there was some ethical and also legal means to procure movies for the kids.

wdb• 3 years ago

It’s quite suspicious that they are firing 2.500 people now while also said they wouldn’t move 2.000 people to Florida. Might be related

riotnrrd• 3 years ago

It's not related. The Florida move was to be Imagineering; these layoffs do not touch that group.

AzzieElbab• 3 years ago

Avatar has done well despite its very tiring messaging. It feels like other Disney ventures are simply drowning in incompetence and irrelevance.

stuckinhell7• 3 years ago

I'm truly shocked what happened to the Star Wars brand. The closing of the Star Wars Hotel a 300 million dollar investment is crazy to hear.

The cultural center of the country and the corporate and academic elite seem to be moving further apart.

raisedbyninjas• 3 years ago

If J.J. Abrams is included in the layoffs, maybe they can turn a corner.

jrpt• 3 years ago

The Star Wars Hotel was a bad product. They could’ve just made it a normal hotel themed as a Star Wars ship, price it say 20% more than a normal hotel, and it would’ve done well. Instead it was some crazy cruise ship type experience (and price) that people didn’t really want.

ruffrey• 3 years ago

I wonder how many contractors they have cut, and if these numbers include any. When I worked in tech at Disney, the number of contractors was quite high. All new people would work minimum 2 years as a contractor. Then move to a new contract within Disney, or get converted to FTE.

brianwawok• 3 years ago

Contractors almost never count as a layoff.

Disney begins third round of expected layoffs, cutting more than 2,500 jobs

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