Disney to shut down Ice Age studio

Blue Sky, the studio behind the Ice Age series, will be shut down by Disney in April this year. Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in March 2019, and Blue Sky was once the animation production department of 20th Century Fox, which had produced 13 animated films including Ice Age, with a global box office of $5.9 billion.

Disney's decision will result in 450 employees losing their jobs, but Deadline reported that Disney will work with employees to allow them to work in other internal studios of Disney as much as possible, but other large studios have no plans to absorb Blue Sky employees.

Blue Sky's upcoming new work "Nimona" has also been affected and will no longer be released (originally scheduled for release on January 14, 2022), which means that the studio's last animated film will be 2019's "Spies in Disguise".

Deadline pointed out that the past year has brought challenges to Disney in many ways, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not only in terms of studios, but also the closure of theme parks and cruise ships.

“After much consideration and evaluation given current economic realities, we have made the difficult decision to close our film production division, Blue Sky Studios,” a spokesperson told Deadline.

Disney still owns the Blue Sky Studios IP, and a series based on the Ice Age characters is in the works for Disney+. The five Ice Age films have grossed $3.2 billion worldwide.