DreamWorks Animation, the Comcast/NBCUniversal-owned, Oscar-winning animation studio behind the blockbuster film franchises Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, The Boss Baby and How to Train Your Dragon, has confirmed that 33 employees have been let go as part of cost cutting measures. Those affected by the April layoffs, approximately 2% of the studio workforce, were mostly in support functions, according to the studio — production artists, technical directors, lighters and compositors.
Such cost-cutting measures have been playing out across the entertainment landscape, with notable recent staff reductions hitting children’s entertainment and animation divisions at The Walt Disney Co. and YouTube Originals. Last year, the Warner Bros. Discovery merger also resulted in major belt tightening, including laying off a quarter of the Warner Bros. Television workforce and funneling two of its animation studios (Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation) into a single pipeline.
In the past year, DreamWorks has enjoyed box-office success with its Aaron Blabey adaptation The Bad Guys (2022, $250.66 million worldwide) and swashbuckling Shrek sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, $483 million), which were both well received by critics and audiences and much-lauded for their envelope-pushing CG animation. The Last Wish was a Top 10 grossing film for 2022, a key title in the healthy theatrical and content licensing revenue that helped bump the studio’s annual revenue to $11.6 billion (+23%).
Coming soon to theaters from DreamWorks Animation, to be released by Universal Pictures, are the original fantasy-adventure Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (June 30), which will premiere at the Annecy Festival in France ahead of its theatrical release; musical sequel Trolls Band Together (November 17) and Kung Fu Panda 4 (March 8, 2024), which will bring star Jack Black back to the epic adventure-comedy world of martial arts-master animals.
