Annapurna Cuts Over 15% of Staff in Latest Restructuring Under Megan Ellison
Annapurna, the indie media company founded by Megan Ellison, laid off roughly 30 employees on Wednesday, 26 August 2026 — more than 15% of its workforce. The company confirmed the cuts to Variety. Ellison remains CEO.
A company spokesperson told Variety the reduction reflects current business conditions and that Annapurna is realigning to meet a changing market landscape. No further detail was provided on which divisions were affected.
The layoffs arrive as Ellison rebuilds. In March 2026, The Hollywood Reporter reported she had re-hired early Annapurna executives Chelsea Barnard and Matthew Budman as part of that effort. Both had been with the company during its most acclaimed run in the 2010s.
Founded in 2011, Annapurna built its name on auteur-driven films — Her, Phantom Thread, Vice, Zero Dark Thirty, Spring Breakers — projects that drew awards attention and critical praise but often carried steep price tags. The company took on roughly $200 million in debt from self-distributing its own films, an amount Ellison resolved personally in 2019.
Recent production has been more commercially minded. Boots Riley's I Love Boosters and Olivia Wilde's The Invite are among Annapurna's current titles; The Invite has crossed $50 million in worldwide box office grosses. Beyond film and television, the company operates an active gaming division and has a hand in live theatre.
The gaming arm has had its own turbulence. In September 2024, the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive — 25 people — resigned en masse after spinoff talks with Ellison collapsed, as first reported by Bloomberg. The mass resignation left game-development partners scrambling and marked one of the most unusual corporate departures in recent industry memory.
That upheaval in gaming and the current staff cuts point to the same tension: Annapurna is a company trying to find its footing across multiple entertainment sectors at once, under a single owner who has personally absorbed its losses before. Whether this realignment stabilises the operation or signals deeper contraction ahead is something only the next slate of releases — and the next ledger — will reveal.
