Disney Plans Several Thousand Layoffs as Managers Told to Cut Costs
Disney is preparing to cut several thousand jobs and has asked some managers to trim costs by up to 20%, according to reports by Bloomberg and CNBC.
The Walt Disney Company is preparing to cut several thousand jobs in what would be the largest round of layoffs so far under Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro. CNBC reported Tuesday that some managers have been told to reduce costs by as much as 20%. Bloomberg News first reported the plan, citing people familiar with the matter. CNBC confirmed the outline through its own sources, who asked not to be named. Disney has not announced the cuts publicly, and TheWrap said the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What happened
According to the reports, Disney is weighing reductions of several thousand positions across the company, and the pain will not be spread evenly. TheWrap, citing the earlier coverage, said some divisions are expected to face deeper cuts than others. Neither Bloomberg nor CNBC has given an exact number of roles at risk.
The cost targets given to managers are a key part of the plan. Some leaders have reportedly been asked to find savings of up to 20% a year. Coverage of the story suggests managers can reach that goal by eliminating jobs, reducing other spending or both, so the target is not the same as a 20% cut to the workforce.
For scale, Disney had about 231,000 employees at the end of its 2025 fiscal year, which closed in September 2025, according to CNBC and TheWrap. Several thousand jobs would be a small share of that total, but it would be much larger than any single round of cuts Disney has made this year.
Disney’s shares fell about 0.5% in premarket trading after the report, Yahoo Finance said.
Why Disney is cutting
D’Amaro succeeded longtime chief executive Bob Iger in March. He has made cost control an early priority. In an Aug. 5 letter to shareholders, D’Amaro and Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston wrote that the company remained “highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise,” CNBC reported. They said several options were under review and the work was still underway.
The reports point to several pressures on the business:
- wider use of artificial intelligence, which is changing how some work gets done;
- weaker box office revenue;
- tougher competition in streaming; and
- slower attendance at Disney’s theme parks outside the United States.
The savings are not only meant to shrink the company. According to TheWrap and Yahoo Finance, D’Amaro plans to put part of the money back into film and television programming, technology, theme parks and cruise ships.
Background: a year of cuts
The new cuts would follow several smaller rounds in 2026. In April, Disney eliminated about 1,000 jobs, mostly in marketing. In August, it offered a voluntary early retirement program to some employees, including executives. Accounts of a September round differ slightly: CNBC put it at about 300 people, many in human resources and technology, while TheWrap described it as a couple hundred workers in those areas. TheWrap and Yahoo Finance also mentioned cuts in July.
TheWrap reported that Disney’s theme parks division laid off between 100 and 200 people last week across Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s creative and engineering arm that designs parks, attractions, resorts, cruise ships and live shows.
Sonia Coleman, Disney’s chief people officer, warned staff that more cuts were coming. In an Aug. 24 letter to employees, she called the retirement offer “one of several actions we’re taking to reshape our organization,” according to CNBC. She also said involuntary job reductions had already started in some areas and would continue into next year.
Disney has gone through major cost cutting before. In 2023, under Iger, the company cut about 7,000 jobs as part of a $5.5 billion savings program, Yahoo Finance noted.
What comes next
Disney is not alone. CNBC reported that Netflix said in a memo last month that it would cut about 6% of its workforce. Skydance, the company that now combines Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, is expected to cut staff as it works toward $6 billion in cost savings over three years.
Disney is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter results on Nov. 17. That will be D’Amaro’s next scheduled chance to talk publicly about the cost program and say how many jobs will be affected, where they will fall and how much money the company expects to save.
