Disney Film Unit to Cut 20% of Workforce

Walt Disney Company, whose film division hasn't posted a profit increase in four quarters, will cut 650 jobs, or 20 percent of the unit's workers, shuffle management and increase its reliance on Disney-branded movies.

Nina Jacobson, president of the motion pictures group, will leave the company, Burbank, Calif.-based Disney said yesterday in a statement. She will be replaced by Mark Zoradi. Oren Aviv was made president of production at Walt Disney Pictures.

The moves are part of chief executive Robert Iger's effort to improve results at the movie unit as Hollywood grapples with higher production and sales costs. The unit posted a $313 million loss in the fourth quarter that ended in September; it’s biggest in six years.

The company will produce and distribute about 10 Disney live-actions and animated films a year and two to three Touchstone films a year. Disney currently produces 14 to 18 movies a year that are more evenly divided between its family-oriented Disney brand and its mature Touchstone label.

Disney has the year's biggest hit in "The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
The film scored a record box-office debut with $132 million in its first three days, and its 10-day total at $258.2 million.