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Hundreds More Layoffs Incoming At VFX Firm DNEG

Max Goldbart
·3-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds more layoffs are incoming at Dune and Oppenheimer VFX firm DNEG.

Deadline is told that the outfit has kicked off a consultation process in at least the UK and Canada, which could see an exodus of around 5% of DNEG’s circa-10,000-strong global workforce. DNEG had not responded to comment requests by press time.

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Layoffs are understood to be somewhat concentrated within R&D teams and are a response to the challenged market, which has not eased up since the Hollywood strikes ended and has not improved sufficiently after DNEG brought in a pay offer for staff last year.

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In the UK, where sources say the number of layoffs is predicted to be around 100, Bectu boss Philippa Childs said the union is “continuing to do everything we can to support our members who are affected by these redundancies.”

“We know this will be a very worrying time for anyone working at DNEG, compounding what has been a very difficult year for UK film and TV workers,” she added. “This is a very challenging time for the sector and many businesses are having to make tough decisions.”

Meanwhile, DNEG recently unionized in Canada via an IATSE branch and this branch is understood to be helping workers through the process. We are told DNEG is co-operating with both Bectu and IATSE Canada.

The news comes a day after DNEG unveiled a new facility with Dimension Studio, DNEG 360, expanding a partnership in virtual production, which will be based in London and Rome.

This isn’t the first round of layoffs that DNEG has enacted in the past year, as the global recession bites the VFX sector.

Around a year ago, the 25-year-old company made around 70 redundancies from its Fitzrovia, Central London base. Shortly afterwards and to avoid more redundancies, DNEG brought in a controversial pay offer, asking staff to take up to 25% pay cuts or join a loan scheme amid the Hollywood strikes, which were denting the sector. DNEG offered further options to employees following the publication of Deadline’s initial story about the pay offer such as “spreading the effect of the salary reduction over a longer period of time, reduced hours for reduced pay or compensation for lost wages in the form of additional paid leave.”

“They made a number of proposals under the guise of ‘we hope things will improve’ but that evidently hasn’t happened,” said a union source.

DNEG is a VFX behemoth with recent credits including Dune: Part Two, Oppenheimer and The Last of Us, while it has won Oscars for the likes of Inception and Tenet. Run by Namit Malhotra, the company has offices in London, LA, Vancouver, Mumbai, Chennai, Montreal, Bangalore, Toronto and Sydney.

DNEG’s latest full-year results for the year to March 31, 2022 saw revenues shoot upwards by 33% to $409M, with adjusted EBITDA topping the $100M mark, but the economic situation has changed quite significantly since then and DNEG is yet to post 2023 results. The company attempted to go public via a $1.7B SPAC deal in early 2022 but aborted six months later.

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