Insider spoke to 21 current and recently departed Amazon Studios executives, Hollywood agents, and other industry insiders to get a sense of the opportunities and challenges ahead for Salke and Hopkins most sources requested anonymity to protect jobs and relationships at the company.Īmazon Studios is just one source of content for Prime Video, which in turn is one of a bundle of services that drive Amazon Prime memberships ($139 per year or $15 per month in the US).
Inside and outside the company, there are concerns about a lack of clear creative direction and large cost overruns on projects, while a big fall reorganization also created conflicts about the greenlight process for new content and who's in charge.
Yet Amazon Studios faces major challenges. Amazon leadership was bullish on Prime Video on Amazon's February 2 earnings call. Amazon in February announced it was leading a $20 million investment in Superplastic, a character-design studio and toy maker, with Amazon Studios also entering a deal to develop shows around Superplastic characters. With the addition last year of MGM - the storied film and TV studio behind the Rocky and James Bond franchises, which Amazon acquired for $8.45 billion - the tech giant's content ambitions are expanding. Maisel."Īnd while it's hard to know whether Amazon's pricey "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The Rings of Power," met internal expectations, the company says it drew 100 million viewers and drove more Prime sign-ups worldwide than any previous Prime Video content. It has found large audiences for shows like "Jack Ryan" and "The Boys" and has scored prestige points and awards with series like "The Marvelous Mrs. It just revealed its content spending soared 28% to $16.6 billion in 2022, including outlays on NFL's "Thursday Night Football" and music as well as original video. Today, Amazon seems like a bastion of stability amid a broader Hollywood spending slowdown. By bringing on Salke - who'd spent seven years as president of entertainment at NBC - as well as Sony, Hulu, and Fox veteran Mike Hopkins two years later, Amazon signaled it was serious about establishing itself as a force in entertainment. When Jennifer Salke arrived at Amazon Studios in 2018, the tech giant's film and TV division was reeling from the ouster of her predecessor, Roy Price, who was forced out amid allegations of sexual harassment. Some question Salke's ability to make the studio succeed inside the tech behemoth.Amazon is a big, reliable content buyer, but many Hollywood insiders are uncertain about the vision.The dust has been settling at Amazon Studios after a big reorg in the fall that solidified Jen Salke's power.
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