Sony Pictures Entertainment to cut hundreds of film and TV jobs
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Sony Pictures Entertainment plans to lay off a few hundred employees globally in a move to restructure its business.
The cuts, announced Tuesday afternoon, are set to affect employees who work across Sony’s film, TV and corporate divisions, the company said, declining to specify how many would lose their jobs.
Sony said the cuts reflect a shift in business strategy under its new chief executive, Ravi Ahuja.
“As we lean into those priorities, we need to operate with greater focus, speed, and alignment to strengthen our differentiated capabilities,” Ahuja said in a statement. “To support our growth, we are aligning our organization with where the business is going — not where it has been. That requires changes to how we are structured and where we invest.”
Ahuja, who was promoted just over a year ago, added that the company is ”reducing roles in certain areas while increasing focus and investment in others that are most critical to our future.”
The San Francisco-based company said it’s slashing roughly 7% of its global workforce.
Sony plans to focus on franchise strategy and brand extension with game shows, as well as develop more anime, experiences and content that will connect with a younger audience. This includes more game adaptations and growing its YouTube capabilities.
One of the studio’s biggest franchises is the “Spider-Man” universe, which includes both live-action films starring actors like Tom Holland and the Oscar-winning animated “Spider-Verse” movies. The studio is set to release the latest live-action installment, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” this summer. The previous movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a major win for Sony as it generated $1.9 billion globally.
Sony Pictures operates under its Japanese parent company, Sony Group Corp., alongside other subsidiaries including Sony Music Group and Sony Electronics. The film studio was established in 1987 and maintains a strong presence in Culver City.
The studio recently acquired the “Peanuts” comic in a $457-million deal, reupped “Reading Rainbow” for a YouTube audience and is working on PlayStation adaptations for video games such as “Helldivers” and “God of War.”
The company behind Barbie and Hot Wheels plans to lay off 65 workers in May, the latest in a series of mass layoffs that have plagued Mattel in the past year.
The company has also combined its game show group with its nonfiction TV department and is slowing down areas of its business that have low growth, such as the VFX and virtual production studio Pixomondo.
The layoffs are the latest to hit Hollywood, which has been hard hit by the exodus of film and TV jobs to other states and countries, a cutback in the number of films being released and media consolidation. Last year, Paramount cut 10% of its workforce after it was acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
