Hollywood Faces Carnage as Mass Unemployment Hits Entertainment Industry

Hollywood is seeing a wave of staff reductions from the corporate suites to the theme park turnstiles as entertainment giants including the Walt Disney Co. and Endeavor implement layoffs and furloughs in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Just how bad is the carnage? In Los Angeles County alone, 14,000 entertainment-related workers saw their jobs evaporate in less than two months, according to a new report from tech news outlet dot.LA. Meanwhile, Tinseltown could see even more bloodshed in the second quarter, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Endeavor — the largest Hollywood talent agency, as well as a studio — recently said that it will lay off or furlough up to a third of its staff. Disney has furloughed more than 100,000 employees worldwide, mostly in the company’s parks division.

Hollywood has been hit on multiple fronts, including the closure of cinemas and the suspension of live sports, which is usually a cash cow for broadcasters. The L.A. office of Fox Sports Productions saw 3,595 people temporarily laid off at the end of April, according to dot.LA.

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Some of the biggest job losses have come from the production sector, which consists of below-the-line crew members who typically toil year round on crowded movie and TV sets. Hollywood’s trade unions have seen their members idle without work as soundstages around the country remain empty.

Breitbart News reported last week that Hollywood studios are currently working on ways to make sets safe when production ultimately resumes. While no major studio has yet to announce a timetable, one source told Breitbart that U.S. production may resume in June at the earliest.

But L.A. County’s decision to prolong its stay-at-home order for an additional three months is only creating more uncertainty.

Tyler Perry recently announced that his Atlanta studio will resume limited production in July. Countries including New Zealand, Poland, the Czech Republic have also announced that shooting can resume.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that individual studios are remaining vague about potential future layoffs. But some executives have spoken about coronavirus-related cost savings.