Jen Salke to step down from her role at Amazon MGM Studios

Jennifer Salke will step down from her role as head of Amazon MGM Studios, the company said Thursday in an internal email viewed by the Times.
Salke wonβt be going far. Sheβll be starting a new production entity that has a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios for both film and TV, according to the memo from Mike Hopkins, Salkeβs boss.
βAs Iβve been considering my next chapter, Iβve always been searching for that moment where I was positive that our work had set up Amazon MGM Studios for even more success in the long term,β Salke said in the email sent to staff. βWhen I look at the teams weβve put in place, our amazing leaders, and the incredible slate of films and shows weβve got in the pipeline, I realized now is that moment.β
Salke joined Amazon Studios in 2018 from NBC Entertainment. At the time, Amazon was looking to make moves into Hollywood and expand beyond its e-commerce roots.
Its major productions for Amazonβs Prime Video streaming service include βThe Rings of Power,β βFalloutβ and βReacher.β Recent movies included the Oscar best picture-nominated βNickel Boysβ and the Anne Hathaway romantic dramedy βThe Idea of You.β
A television executive for most of her career, she was met with skepticism from the film industry when she took over.
Amazon acquired MGM Studios in 2022 for $8.5 billion. It recently secured a deal to take over creative control of the James Bond franchise from the Broccoli family.
The company does not plan to fill Salkeβs position. Film head Courtenay Valenti and TV head Vernon Sanders will now report directly to Hopkins, the head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. The studio will operate as distinct film and TV operations, the email said.
The decision reflects a broader effort by Amazon to streamline leadership structures.
Hopkins joined Amazon in 2020 to oversee Prime Video after serving as CEO of Hulu, then taking on a high-profile stint at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he ran the television business. He had previously served as a respected distribution executive at Rupert Murdochβs Fox.
When Hopkins moved to Amazon, he replaced one of Jeff Bezosβ longest-serving executives and reported directly to the billionaire. He has been busy building Amazonβs sports business, which includes βThursday Night Football,β NASCAR, mixed martial arts and New York Yankees baseball games.
Salkeβs authority has been diminished since Hopkins joined Amazon. She stayed heavily involved in the programming and helped build βReacher,β βThe Boysβ and the reboot of βMr. & Mrs. Smith,β but Hopkins was the boss, a departure from earlier in Salkeβs tenure when she was the top studio executive in Culver City.
In his email to staff, Hopkins was complimentary of Salkeβs role at the company, saying that βher vision, creativity and industry relationships were (and are) so apparent that I had no doubt our work together could be transformative not only to Amazon, but also to the industry as a whole.β
Salkeβs decision to leave was her choice, according to a person familiar with the matter but unauthorized to comment publicly.
Under her leadership, Salke cultivated deals with high-profile talent
βShe is someone who really believes in making a home for talent,β said Latasha Gillespie, a former Amazon MGM Studios executive who is now an executive board member for Getty House Foundation. βThe reason why talent liked working with us is because of the message Jen permeated in the organization about how you care for people who you are in business with.β
But some industry insiders said Salke wasnβt as effective at managing costs, pointing to overspending on talent and bloated budgets for some of Amazonβs series, including the 2023 Joe and Anthony Russo-directed spy thriller βCitadel,β which reportedly cost more than $200 million.