Courtesy of Prime Video

Last week Amazon Prime Video flexed its international muscle with a host of events around Europe, including a Prime Video Presents Trailblazers event celebrating women on and off screen – which included appearances from Octavia Spencer, Priyanka Chopra Jones and Amy Pascal – followed by the “Citadel: Diana” premiere in Italy.

During the whirlwind European tour, two of Amazon’s most senior female execs — Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, and Kelly Day, VP of international for Prime Video – sat down with Variety to talk about celebrating women, how the industry has changed over the past five years, what the international strategy is going forward, and what’s in store for some of their biggest franchises, including “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “Tomb Raider.”

We’re meeting at the conclusion of a pretty spectacular Amazon’s Trailblazers event in London. What was the inspiration behind the day?

Jennifer Salke: Our team [in the U.K.] really took notice of the commitment we’ve made to female programming and over the last few years — it’s such a drumbeat of just who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish — so they suggested it to us.

Kelly Day: We have been quite intentional about trying to really build this female-led slate. We’ve got these incredible female-led characters now doing big action sequences and leading big action series, like Priyanka in “Citadel.” It feels exciting and like we’re actually breaking some new ground so I think it’s great to be able to celebrate.

JS: Big genre pieces that are global, big male action pieces — we know those things work. There’s data galore to support those decisions. But it’s like, let’s get out there and break ground with women and see the results of that. And that’s happening. You have the Anne Hathaway movie [“The Idea of You” co-starring Nicholas Galitzine] — 50 million people just in the launch window. It must be way more by now. That, I think was a real — not wake up call for us, because we’re just building and building – but for everyone else it was like, “Wait a minute!” We have a tiger by the tail kind of thing.

Given “The Idea of You,” which is based on the novel by Robinne Lee, did so well, is there any chance of a sequel?

[Salke and Day exchange meaningful looks]

JS: Maybe! We announced that we’re making a “Red, White & Royal Blue” sequel [also starring Galitzine]. So you can look for us wanting to deliver more when there’s something that’s been so successful like that. But we’re definitely in business with [“The Idea of You”] director Michael Showalter — who’s not a woman, but he certainly did an incredible job bringing a very female story to light — and we see him as a preferred partner on some other things in the romantic comedy space.

[Editor’s note: Lee has also teased a possible sequel]

Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in “The Idea of You” (Alisha Wetherill /© Amazon Prime /Courtesy Everett Collection)©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection

At the Trailblazers event you revealed that “Reacher’s” Frances Neagley, played by Maria Sten, is getting her own spin off. How did that come about?

JS: We knew from the feedback on the show that people love her. And her character is really, really interesting. She’s very guarded, very formidable.

KD: We had research that said people wanted to know more about her.

JS: So when [“Reacher” creator] Nick Santora and Skydance came to us with an idea to build something off her, they wrote the material and we thought it was fantastic. It was very exciting especially to have a female lead.

Since Amazon’s acquisition of MGM, some drama producers in the U.K. have expressed confusion over which arm of the company they should be pitching. Can you provide any clarity on that?

JS: I think we’ve had a little bit of confusion here in the U.K. on what the right doorway is to go through. I think you’ll see over the course of the next couple of years just a bigger investment in the footprint we’re building here, as far as the infrastructure, the teams, and there’ll be clarity around that.

As part of that investment Amazon MGM Studios recently acquired Bray Studios, where “Rings of Power” is filmed. Can we take that as indication that the show, which shot its first season in New Zealand, is staying in the U.K.?

JS: I think you can. Why not? No plans to move it. Very excited about it.

How have you found the reaction to Season 2?

JS: Obviously very different marketing levels and all of that [to Season 1]. But that being said, over 55 million people at this point have engaged since Season 2 launched. And if you look at the long-term trajectory, which is how this company looks at an asset like that, this is a long-term investment in that franchise. […] There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.

Is there any change to the 50-episode commitment?

JS: I don’t think so. [That] commitment is never the thing that’s driving what we’re doing. We’ll continue to make the show as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where — it is a business. Obviously, we need a large amount of people showing up. And there are a large amount of people, so there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue.

Embracer, who’ve had a rocky 18 months, currently own the majority of Tolkien’s IP. Could we see a situation in which Amazon potentially acquires the company?

JS: We’re always talking about those opportunities but I don’t have anything to share [right now].

Embracer also own “Tomb Raider,” which Amazon revealed it’s rebooting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge at the helm. How’s that going?

JS: “Tomb Raider” is really exciting and Phoebe is well into it and working in close partnership with [“Tomb Raider” general manager] Dallas Dickinson and the game producers, and it’s going to be very exciting. But I don’t have any [new updates].

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video)Courtesy of Prime Video

We’re also hearing that Amazon, like other streamers, is moving away from the cost plus model towards a more traditional territory-by-territory acquisition strategy. Is that accurate?

KD: It depends. We actually prefer to keep the rights globally where we can but we have been much more flexible, in particular in Europe. We’ve got a number of deals where we either share rights with a broadcaster — we’ve actually done that recently in the U.S., even with some of the gameshows with Fox — or in some cases leave them with a producer and just take select territories then let them distribute other places around the world. So I think that being flexible about those deal structures has really enabled us to capture and get access to a lot of the great selection that we’ve been looking for.

The last few years have been a rollercoaster for the industry thanks to the streaming boom followed by the so-called “Netflix correction.” How do you see the past half decade and where things are now?

JS: I just feel across the board right now there’s a need to impose more discipline on spending and that’s happening at every company. So just the way you’re approaching the slate and making sure that we are shooting in economically friendly locations — and really having our creative partners have those conversations up front on what the parameters are — I think has been helpful. There’s clearly a need to contain cost and so you’re seeing that reflected even in the dealmaking across the board. It’s not like somebody can demand a certain thing and then go, “I’m going to go down the street and get it” because all these companies are kind of operating in very much the same way. And so that’s been a big sea change.

A hallmark of the boom was a glut of first-look and overall deals, particularly with talent and creatives. Has that changed too?

JS: I think there was a real battle for the biggest rainmaker creators and the sky was the limit on how much was being paid for those people. We pursued those deals very strategically. But there is no doubt, across the board, that a correction has happened in the market with overall deals. And that’s another place you can see the whole thing settling down.

One of the most talked about deals of that era was Amazon’s rumored $60 million partnership with Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

JS: Yeah, but when we look at a long term commitment to a creator like Phoebe — we’re so happy now that we retained her because she’s obsessed with and grew up playing Lara Croft/“Tomb Raider.” So the fact that she’s the creator and bringing this character to life, we think it’s going to be a huge franchise for us. She went off to do a movie, there are things that happened — if people want to go take an accounting of what deals they were able to get value out of or not, there’s still probably a lot to do there. But I think we’re looking at converting a lot of those deals to a very performance-based model, based on what they accomplish. And that’s been received very well because you’ve got to change with the times.

Jennifer Salke and Kelly Day with talent and creatives at the Prime Video Presents Trailblazers event in London on Oct. 1

From the outside it also looks like streamers are pivoting more towards unscripted content. Is that true?

KD: We probably skew a little bit more in our international originals towards unscripted. Those kinds of stories and those shows tend to resonate a little bit more on a local level, rather than on a global level, whereas obviously a lot of the stuff that we’re producing like “Fallout” and stuff are really intended from day one to appeal to a large global audience. [Original comedy format] “LOL” Germany, which is hugely popular there, probably isn’t going to resonate in Mexico so we tend to really look at unscripted as being a cornerstone of the local strategy and then it’s complemented by the global slate.

Amazon has also been restructuring in Europe and, at the beginning of this year, cut funding in Africa and the Middle East in favor of focusing on European originals. Can you update us on the strategy there?

KD: We operate in over 200 countries. We’ve got teams in 20 countries. We’ve been, over the last couple of years, continuing to focus on and look at our investments relative to where we see the opportunity to serve those customers. There have been a couple of regions where maybe we jumped in a little bit faster than maybe we should have. We’re just getting ready to roll out Prime in some of those countries. I think it tends to work best when we have both the retail and the shipping benefits, along with the video program and everything else. In many places around the world Prime Video has been the first service to arrive. So in a lot of places we actually operate a service before we’ve launched a retail business [e.g. Brazil]. And that has been incredibly effective for us and has really been a great entry point into a lot of countries. But there have been a couple of regions where we might have got a little bit out over our skis in terms of the investment that we made. We have not stopped operating in those countries, we have not pulled out of those countries, but we have kind of scaled back the investment a little bit and have been moving the pieces around.

JS: But it doesn’t mean they’re not enjoying global originals and licensed film and television.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.