Entertainment giant Disney is set to eliminate up to 4,000 jobs as part of CEO Bob Iger’s $5.5 billion budget cut plan as the company faces repeated box office bombs, billions in losses over its streaming service, and political setbacks due to its radical left-wing policies in Florida.
According to reports, executives have tasked managers with identifying which of their employees can be laid off as “redundant and disposable” and have been told to have their lists ready in the next two weeks.
Insiders have leaked that the first layoffs will be initiated in April, though it is not known if the layoffs will happen in waves, or all at once.
The 4,000 layoffs may be just the beginning. In Feb., it was reported that Iger was looking to end up to 7,000 jobs, or more than 3 percent of the workforce.
Some of the job cuts will come from positions that are currently open and will later simply be eliminated.
The layoffs are set despite the company’s profits of $23.51 billion, which slightly exceeded expectations of $23.44 billion.
It was also reported that the company is scaling back spending on new programing, marketing, and owned enterprises such as ESPN and other entertainment divisions.
Like much of the rest of the entertainment industry, Disney has also suffered from the crashing advertisement market as companies cut back on advertising due to spiraling inflation.
Disney’s financial worries come as the company has increasingly embraced the extreme woke agenda, transgenderism, and critical race theory, especially in its entertainment aimed at children. As Breitbart News recently reported, the Disney+ streaming channel series The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder stirred controversy by pushing reparations for slavery, claiming in its latest episode that America was founded on “white supremacy” and “still has not atoned” for its racism.
All these pressures are compounded by repeated box office disappointments as woke features including Lightyear, Enchanto, Mulan, Strange World and others fail to live up to expectations at the theater. Not to mention that its much ballyhooed streaming service is still not making a profit.
The company has also lost a string of political battles in Florida, home of its Disney World theme park, after attempting and failing to force Florida to allow young school children to be exposed to radical gender politics by opposing the state’s recent education laws, and losing its special taxing and self-governing status.
Still, Disney is far from alone in laying off entertainment industry workers. Layoffs have already hit Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Netflix.
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