People gather at the Magic Kingdom theme park before the “Festival of Fantasy” parade at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022.

Octavio Jones | Reuters

Disney is planning to begin its next phase of cost cutting, which will include as many as 1,000 layoffs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The cost-cutting initiative comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro took the helm as CEO in mid-March.

The layoffs are expected to mostly affect Disney’s marketing department, according to the person, who requested to speak anonymously because the moves had not yet been made public. That department was recently consolidated under Asad Ayaz, who was named chief marketing and brand officer in January.

Ayaz, who reports directly to D’Amaro and Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, oversees marketing for all of Disney’s divisions — entertainment, experiences and sports — in the newly created role. It’s the first time that Disney brought all of its units under one marketing chief.

Disney’s stock was slightly down in afternoon trading on Thursday. The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The changes to the marketing department structure occurred in January, when Bob Iger was still CEO of the company. Disney announced shortly after that that D’Amaro would take take over the top job — a long-awaited decision for the company.

D’Amaro, who previously was chairman of Disney Experiences, succeeded Iger after a period of uncertainty for the media and theme park giant — which had included a succession race and recent reorganization and turnaround of the business.

Iger reclaimed the Disney CEO role in late 2022, about two years after his initial departure. He was immediately tasked with a turnaround of the business as its stock price had fallen and earnings began to miss expectations.

By February 2023, Disney had announced sweeping plans that reorganized the structure of the company, cut $5.5 billion in costs and eliminated 7,000 jobs from its workforce.

On D’Amaro’s first official day as CEO in March, he noted the work Iger had done to get the company past one of its most difficult periods.

“When Bob returned to the company a few years ago, his goal was to fortify our business and lay the groundwork for long-term growth, by reigniting creativity and improving performance at our studios, building a robust and profitable streaming business, transforming ESPN for a digital future, and turbocharging our parks and experiences,” D’Amaro said on stage at the company’s investor day.

“We’ve accomplished all of those things, and we’re operating from a place of strength, with ample opportunity for growth.”

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Source: Warner Bros. | Paramount

When Paramount Skydance combines with the Warner Bros. film studio, it’ll have a deep bench of marquee franchises and established prestige. What the powerhouse duo will be missing is an animated film slate that could rival Hollywood giants like Disney and Universal.

The combined entity, which is still awaiting regulatory approval, has a stacked slate of tentpoles including DC superhero fare, a Minecraft sequel, another Sonic the Hedgehog film and new entrants from The Lord of the Rings universe. Not to mention, Warner Bros. just tied the record for the most Academy Award wins for a single studio earlier this month.

But it’s been kid-friendly animated content that is increasingly driving families to the theater — and neither studio has excelled in this area in the last decade.

Since 2016, Paramount and Warner Bros. have each released eight animated features on the big screen, with Paramount generating $1.1 billion in total global ticket sales from the category and Warner Bros. tallying $1.3 billion, according to data from Comscore.

During that time, only one Paramount animated film has generated more than $200 million globally — 2023’s “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” — and only one Warner Bros. animated title has scored more than $300 million globally — 2017’s “Lego Batman.”

For comparison, in the last decade Disney released 21 theatrical animated features, collecting $14.1 billion from the films; Universal released 23 animated movies to the tune of $10.7 billion; and Sony released 16, bringing in $4.6 billion in ticket sales.

Disney has seen seven animated features generate more than $1 billion globally during that time, and Universal has seen two.

These figures do not include live-action films with animated elements like Paramount’s Sonic franchise, Universal’s “Gabby’s Dollhouse,” or Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which the studio considers a live-action film. They also don’t include animated films released to streaming during the pandemic that were later brought to theaters like Disney’s “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red.”

“When the moviegoing world is operating at or near peak efficiency, it’s virtually always because of a diverse release slate that includes one or more movies catering heavily to kids and families,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “Animation, in most cases, directly serves that audience while providing an anchor for studios and cinema owners to rely on.”

Together, Paramount and Warner Bros. accounted for 27% of the domestic box office in 2025, just shy of the 28% market share held by Disney.

“As Paramount and Warner Bros. merge, it becomes even more essential for their combined resources to be strategically directed toward developing a robust animated film portfolio,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

“Animated film releases are crucial for any movie studio, requiring a well-thought-out strategy whether the projects are original works, extensions of existing intellectual property, or reboots of beloved legacy franchises,” he added.

In the last two years, family-friendly fare with a PG rating has won at the box office, outperforming PG-13 and R rated films, Comscore data shows.

“This rating is significant because it allows these films to attract a broader audience, making them true four-quadrant releases with the highest box office potential of almost any genre in today’s movie marketplace,” Dergarabedian said.

Additionally, animated features are not usually front-loaded at the box office, Robbins noted, meaning they steadily generate ticket sales over the course of their run in theaters, gaining word of mouth.

A typical Hollywood film will see a 50% to 70% drop in sales from opening weekend to the second weekend after the rush to the theater fades. Animated features don’t always experience the same cliff.

For Disney’s “Hoppers,” for example, the opening week dropoff was less than 37%, and the second week drop was less than 38%.

“Not all animated releases are as successful as others, but they can be incredibly valuable with their potential for long-tail grosses alongside ancillary revenues via merchandising, down-window rentals and purchases, and other non-theatrical financial opportunities,” Robbins added.

Working in Paramount’s and Warner Bros.’s favor: They already have lucrative animated IP. The combined library features SpongeBob SquarePants, Smurfs, Paw Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and DC superheroes.

Disney and Universal have been successful in the last decade balancing new titles with sequels. For Disney, it has introduced stories like “Coco,” “Zootopia” and “Encanto” alongside “Frozen II,” “Toy Story 4” and “Inside Out 2.” At Universal, it’s had newcomers like “Sing,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Migration” arrive at the box office and returning favorites like “Kung Fu Panda 4,” “Despicable Me 4” and “The Bad Guys 2.”

“It will be important for a freshly minted Paramount/WBD combo to not only expand on these brands but also to develop new animated properties to have the best shot at capturing their share of the massive potential box office for this extremely popular and competitive category of film,” Dergarabedian said.

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Courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.

Blue aliens, a family of superheroes and a city of talking animals boosted the Walt Disney Company to the top of the domestic box office in 2025.

Full-year ticket sales in the United States and Canada rose about 4% from 2024 to $9.05 billion. Disney accounted for the highest share of that haul with $2.49 billion in ticket sales, or 27.5%, according to data from Comscore.

It’s closest competitors were Warner Bros. Discovery, which tallied $1.9 billion domestically, or 21%, and Universal, which took in $1.7 billion, or 19.7%. Together, these three studios accounted for nearly 70% of the domestic box office market share.

No other studio surpassed $1 billion in domestic ticket sales or accounted for more than 7% of the total box office haul.

“[Warner Bros., Disney and Universal] have the advantage of having at least two or more distinct and successful sub-brands labels — such as Marvel under Disney, New Line under WB and Illumination under Universal — under their corporate umbrella that enables these studios to dominate at least in terms of the overall box office and percentage of the marketplace that they control,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

Disney’s standout performance came on the backs of already popular intellectual property. Four of its films were part of the top 10 highest-grossing domestic releases of the year, including the live-action remake of “Lilo & Stitch,” a sequel to 2016’s “Zootopia,” another entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with “Fantastic Four: First Steps” and a third “Avatar” film.

“Most years at the box office are dominated by known IP and non-original content; films that have the baked in brand name recognition that theoretically gives those films a leg up in terms of marketing and potential box office success,” Dergarabedian said.

In fact, nine of the 10 biggest movies at the domestic box offices were from existing IP. Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” was the only original title to make the list.

“In 2025 there were some big budget originals that did incredibly well … but lest anyone think that trend is going away, 2026 looks to eclipse 2025 in terms of the number of high-profile sequels and known IP on the slate for the year,” Dergarabedian said.

That’s especially true for Disney.

The studio is set to release its first Star Wars film in theaters since 2019 called “The Mandalorian and Grogu” after the popular characters of its “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+; “Toy Story 5” is will hit theaters in June followed by a live-action “Moana” in July; then the hotly anticipated “Avengers: Doomsday” arrives in December.

A new Spider-Man film will also sling into theaters in 2026, but as part of a deal with Sony to have the character as part of Disney’s MCU, Sony keeps the majority of box office profits while Disney gets merchandise sales.

The box office will also get a boost from Warner Bros.’ “Supergirl” and “Dune: Part Three,” Universal’s “Minions 3,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “The Odyssey,” Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” and Sony’s third “Jumanji” film.

“As we look into 2026, there’s plenty of optimism to go around,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory “The slate is packed with top-tier franchises, some fan-driven and others family-oriented, alongside filmmaker-driven tentpoles … plus an inevitable crop of strong or potentially surprising performers out of horror, comedy, indie, and other genres.”

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.

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The ESPN Bet logo on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. 

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Disney’s ESPN is swapping out its sports betting partner.

In separate releases Thursday, the company said it was terminating its agreement with Penn Entertainment years earlier than planned and had signed an agreement with DraftKings to make it the exclusive official sportsbook and odds provider for ESPN.

Both changes take effect in December.

“Our betting approach has focused on offering an integrated experience within our products,” ESPN Chariman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “Working with DraftKings, a leader in the space, will allow us to build upon that foundation, continue to super-serve passionate sports fans and grow our ESPN direct-to-consumer business.”

Under the partnership, DraftKings will power ESPN’s mobile betting tab.

“ESPN’s unmatched visibility across the world of sports make this collaboration a natural fit,” said DraftKings CEO Jason Robins in a statement. “As an innovative leader in digital sports entertainment, DraftKings is uniquely positioned to integrate our technology and products with ESPN’s iconic brand and storytelling power.”

ESPN inked its previous deal with Penn in 2023 after spending some time looking for a gambling partner. Disney had made clear in the past it would never take bets directly, making a partnership the only viable path for ESPN to get into the booming online sports gambling industry.

Sports betting has become an integral part of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform.

ESPN and Penn’s partnership allowed for ESPN to rebrand and relaunch Penn’s sportsbook — then known as Barstool Sportsbook — as ESPN Bet.

The agreement had a 10-year term but allowed for either ESPN or Penn to end the agreement after the third year “if specific market share performance thresholds were not met,” according to the news release.

And on Thursday, Penn and ESPN announced they had agreed to wind down the partnership after just two years. Penn’s sportsbook will be rebranded again as theScore Bet.

“When we first announced our partnership with ESPN, both sides made it clear that we expected to compete for a podium position in the space,” said Penn CEO Jay Snowden in a news release.

“Although we made significant progress in improving our product offering and building a cohesive ecosystem with ESPN, we have mutually and amicably agreed to wind down our collaboration,” he said.

Under the original deal, ESPN agreed to provide Penn with the exclusive right to its brand for the sportsbook, as well as media and marketing services. In exchange, Penn agreed to pay ESPN $1.5 billion in cash over the 10-year period, and also granted ESPN about $500 million of warrants to buy roughly 31.8 million Penn common shares that would vest over the same period.

On Thursday the companies said Penn’s $150 million in yearly cash payments will cease in the fourth quarter, as would the warrants to buy Penn’s common stock.

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File photo: “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Randy Holmes | Disney General Entertainment Content | Getty Images

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to air Tuesday night, generating 6.26 million total viewers despite significant preemptions across 23% of U.S. TV households, according to data from Nielsen shared by Disney.

This viewership is exponentially higher than average. During the 2024-2025 season, a period that ran from September to May, Kimmel’s average viewership was 1.42 million.

The pretaped show, which airs on the Disney-owned ABC, marked the first time host Jimmy Kimmel publicly addressed his suspension from late night following comments he made during a previous show’s monologue that criticized members of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement for their reaction to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.

“It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” he said Tuesday night. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

In addition to linear ratings, Kimmel’s monologue, which clocked in at over 28 minutes, garnered more than 26 million views across YouTube and social platforms, Disney reported Wednesday. The company also touted that Tuesday’s show earned its highest rating among adults aged 18 to 49 years in more than a decade.

“[Trump] tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show,” Kimmel joked Tuesday during his monologue. “Backfired bigly.”

Local station owners Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair both said they would preempt the show’s return on Tuesday, meaning many markets across the country were not able to watch the program through local channels. Together, the two companies own roughly 70 ABC affiliate stations. According to Disney and Nielsen that preemption impacted a little less than one-fourth of the country.

Nextstar and Sinclair said they would preempt the show last week following comments from from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr that suggested ABC and its affiliate stations could be at risk of losing broadcast licenses over the comments.

On Wednesday, Nexstar said it was “continuing to evaluate” the status of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and was “engaged in productive discussions” with Disney executives.

A Sinclair representative on Wednesday referred CNBC to its statement on Monday, which said the company’s stations would be preempting the show and that “discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”

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