This week, Amazon revealed that Jennifer Salke will be stepping down as the head of Amazon MGM Studios, a decision that may reflect dissatisfaction at the executive level regarding the company’s streaming strategy in recent years.
Salke’s supervisor, Mike Hopkins, who oversees both Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, commended her contributions in an email to staff, describing her departure as a means to “flatten our leadership structure a bit”—a trend seen in recent layoffs across the tech industry. Essentially, Amazon will not be replacing Salke. Instead, the leaders of its film and television divisions will now report directly to Hopkins. Reports surrounding Salke’s exit shed light on the streaming setbacks and challenges the company faced during her tenure. Salke, who previously worked at NBC, joined Amazon Studios in 2018 when the company aimed to diversify from critically acclaimed content to more mainstream successes.
Since then, the platform has enjoyed some hits, including “Reacher,” “Jack Ryan,” “Fallout,” and “The Boys.” However, the ambitious investment in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” yielded a record viewership upon its release, yet it has not achieved the expected global acclaim, especially considering its budget exceeded $1 billion. Additionally, there’s “Citadel,” an espionage series intended to anchor a universe of global spin-offs like “Citadel: Diana” and “Citadel: Honey Bunny.” Extensive reshoots turned “Citadel” into the second most expensive series ever produced, following only “The Rings of Power,” but its reception has been lackluster. The Hollywood Reporter indicated that the second season has been pushed back from fall 2025 to spring 2026, with plans for additional spin-offs now on hold. Amazon has also encountered difficulties in advancing a new James Bond film since acquiring MGM in 2022. Producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who have long overseen the franchise, maintained creative control, and a December report from the Wall Street Journal indicated that Barbara Broccoli was particularly dissatisfied with Amazon. She reportedly took issue when Salke referred to Bond as “content” in an early meeting and was said to have called the tech giant’s team “idiots.”
In response to the WSJ article about Broccoli, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was reportedly so upset that he stated, “I don’t care what it takes, get rid of her,” leading the company to compensate Wilson and Broccoli for relinquishing control. Notably, Salke’s name was absent from Amazon’s celebratory announcement regarding the Bond deal. However, she will be launching a new film and television production company with a first-look agreement at Amazon.
