Amazon Studios Hit With Round of Layoffs

Lesley Goldberg
·2 min read
2

Amazon Studios is the latest entertainment company to be hit by a round of layoffs.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Amazon’s Prime Video has reduced its workforce by 100 staffers across its technology team and other areas. Also impacted are a small number of MGM staffers who joined Amazon as part of its $8.5 billion acquisition of the storied film and TV studio.

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“Like many businesses, we have been closely monitoring economic conditions and our organizational needs and have made the decision to adjust resources,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to THR. “As a result, a small number of roles will be eliminated on some teams. We will be supporting impacted employees through this transition and thank them for the work they have done on behalf of our customers.”

The layoffs come as Amazon Studios, overseen by chief Jennifer Salke, who added MGM’s film and TV to her purview late last year, has been under increased pressure to deliver breakout hits following years of free spending. As THR previously reported, Amazon’s big swings — including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Citadel — have been hampered by confusion and frustration as insiders have complained of a lack of vision at the studio.

Rings of Power, which stands as television’s most expensive show in history, had only a 37 percent domestic completion rate, sources say, and Citadel — which debuts Friday — currently has only a 53 percent rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The global spy thriller has been a frequent subject of conversation internally as a troubled creative vision that required reshoots ballooned the Russo brothers’ show to a budget estimated at $300 million. The series, which Salke greenlit as perhaps her biggest swing since arriving at Amazon, is intended to launch multiple local-language spinoffs and be the cornerstone of an original franchise for the streamer.

The workforce reduction at Amazon Studios comes as CEO Andy Jassy said in March that another 9,000 staffers would join the previously announced 18,000 jobs that were being cut at the company. Amazon Prime Video has about 7,000 staffers worldwide, more than half of whom joined under Salke. Since replacing Roy Price in 2018, Salke has reorganized her executive team numerous times, which has created confusion among showrunners with business at the streamer as well as friction internally.

Amazon Studios becomes the latest entertainment company to be impacted by layoffs that have been the result of economic headwinds. Disney, for example, is in the midst of multiple rounds of reductions as the media industry braces for a possible WGA strike and other economic factors.

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