Around 7,000 jobs are to go at Disney – about 3.6% of the workforce – as a multi-billion dollar cost saving restructuring was announced by chief executive Bob Iger in his battle to improve the company’s finances.

It was Mr Iger’s first quarterly results announcement since he retook control of the entertainment giant in late November. A $1.5bn quarterly loss had increased criticism of company finances and unseated the former head of Disney’s resorts and theme parks and Iger appointee, Bob Chapek.

The cost-saving measure will involve corporate restructuring: content making and distributing will all be moved to just one Disney division instead of two.

Mr Iger said the company is embarking on a “significant transformation” that management believes will lead to improved profitability at the company’s streaming business.

“This reorganisation will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated approach to our operations,” he told analysts on a conference call. “We are committed to running efficiently, especially in a challenging environment.”

At the same time he revealed plans for sequels of some of the company’s biggest animated franchises such as Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia.

It comes as the Walt Disney Company results were better than expected – though Disney+ subscriptions fell.

Subscribers of the Disney+ streaming service have dropped by 2.4 million, the first decline since the platform was launched, but revenues were still up and better than Wall Street forecasts as theme parks brought in operating profit of $3.1 billion during the quarter.

Despite the cost of living crisis the theme park profit is a 25% increase from a year earlier, helped by strong attendance over Christmas.

As seen more generally in the streaming industry, Disney+ subscriptions fell: by the end of last year there were 161.8 million people paying to access the Disney+ service – down from 164.2 million on 1 October, Disney said in its results announcement for the first three months of its 2023 financial year.

The fall came as the cost of a monthly ad-free subscription was upped from $7.99 (£6.61) to $10.99 (£9.10) in December.

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Despite the Disney+ drop and losses, revenues overall came in ahead of analyst estimates at $23.51bn (£19.47bn) and up roughly $1.7bn from the $21.82bn (£18.07bn) recorded a year earlier. Revenue of $23.4bn (£19.38bn) had been forecast by industry analysts.

But Disney managed to scale back the losses on Disney+ that led to Mr Chapek’s exit from the Magic Kingdom.

The streaming media unit, which also includes Hulu and ESPN+, lost $1.1bn (£911m), less than the $1.5bn (£1.24bn) in the quarter before.

Mr Iger said streaming remained Disney’s top priority. He said the company would “focus even more on our core brands and franchises” and “aggressively curate our general entertainment content”.

He also said he would ask the company’s board to restore the shareholder dividend by year end.

Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said the initial dividend would likely be a “small fraction” of the pre-COVID level with a plan to increase it over time.