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The Incredible Shrinking Studio System

Disney’s layoffs and the coming consolidation of Hulu, in addition to cuts at WBD and Paramount, all coalesce around a dreary reality: Less content requires fewer people. The studios avoided these cuts for years. Now, they don’t have any other choice.

bob iger
Disney’s reduction of a couple hundred employees is only the latest in a semi-constant downsizing spree since Iger came back—he laid off 7,000 in early 2023, just after he returned, and there have been at least five separate mass-layoff announcements since then, at divisions from Pixar to ABC News, plus the silent trims and forced exits that don’t get written about. Photo: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Imaged
Matthew Belloni
June 6, 2025

It’s been a bit since I checked in with my Disney text chain, a small group of Burbank employees who added me to their chat—Trump administration-style, except on purpose—way back when all the drama surrounding former C.E.O. Bob Chapek was going down. That was arguably the heyday for disgruntled white-collar Disney workers, and since Bob Iger re-arrived in late 2022, the group has been semi-dormant, save for the occasional outburst about the ABC News settlement, or Kathy Kennedy, or Snow White.

But on Monday night, a new message hit the chain from one of my favorite texters: “Layoffs got me.” And then: “It’s been an honor and a pleasure.” Followed, of course, by the mouse emoji. 

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