Disney to cut jobs amid poor sales of Brave DVDs

DISNEY is to cut jobs after parts of the business saw a drop in income that has been partly blamed on poor DVD sales of the Oscar-winning cartoon Brave, which is set in Scotland.
Brave featured the vocals talents of Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson. Picture: APBrave featured the vocals talents of Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson. Picture: AP
Brave featured the vocals talents of Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson. Picture: AP

The entertainment giant has said that it will be laying off staff in a move to “streamline” its businesses, which comes in the wake of a decline in home entertainment sales.

Disney, which did not specify how many jobs would go, said the cuts were “part of an ongoing review to ensure that the studios’ operational structure and economics align with the demands of the marketplace”.

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The company has already announced that it would be axing 150 jobs from its film studio division as part of a cost review.

Chief executive and chairman Bob Iger had also acknowledged earlier this year that an operating income decline in the home entertainment and theatrical businesses during the first quarter was due in part to the poor retail performances of Brave and a re-release of Cinderella. He said: “Home entertainment results faced a difficult comparison given the releases of Cars 2 and The Lion King last year compared to Brave and Cinderella this year.”

The Pixar-animated film, set in Scotland, about the adventures of a mythical Celtic princess called Meridia, and starring the vocals talents of the likes of Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly and Emma Thompson, was launched in a blaze of publicity at the Edinburgh International Film Festival last year. It went on to win a string of awards, including the Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta titles for best animated film, and may yet see a sequel.

The film did suffer a difficult birth, though, which saw the film change directors halfway through its making, from Brenda Chapman to Mark Andrews.

It achieved a reasonably strong box office performance, grossing more than £364 million globally, while DVD sales figures show 6,249,834 units worth more than £69m were sold.

However, the 2009 Pixar hit Up, which also won the best animated film Oscar, grossed more than £480m in box office, and has gone on to sell some 10,837,357 units, worth £120m,

Film critic Siobhan Synnot said that the figures reflected a general decline in DVD sales in recent years as people moved towards on-line streaming like Netflix and downloads. “Brave resembles a Disney princess story; it’s beautifully animated, but doesn’t have the wider appeal of Pixar’s successful home retail releases, such as the Toy Story series or Cars,” she said.

“Mark Andrews recently remarked that the film’s comedy played better in Scotland than anywhere else in the world, so I wonder if the Scottish cultural touchstones – the accents and the local quirks – limited the global appeal.

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“But it was a courageous film that tried a lot of interesting things. Perhaps another problem came from being a compromise between two directors’ visions: it seemed undecided whether it was a Celtic myth, or a more knockabout cartoon.”

Ms Synnot said that Cinderella had been part of Disney’s marketing strategy of re-releasing a classic title once every eight to ten years for a short period and then taking them off the market, noting that it was also “not the strongest” of its older titles.

Disney’s most recent comprehensive summary of the company’s performance, known as its Form 10-K, also highlighted the fact that “lower home entertainment revenue reflected a 23 per cent decrease from a decline in unit sales, along with the impact of re-issuing older titles at a lower price.”