Warner Home Entertainment Executive Vice President and General Manager, Theatrical New Releases Mike Saksa will leave the studio after deciding not to renew his contract, TheWrap has learned.
Saksa opted to take early retirement and the studio has yet to decide on a replacement, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation.
He had been with Warners for nearly two decades, first joining the studio’s home entertainment team in 1995 as marketing manager. Saksa was eventually promoted to vice president of U.S. marketing, before rising to his current perch.
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At the studio, he helped oversee both digital and physical home entertainment debuts, and guided every Warner Bros. domestic home entertainment release campaign since 1995, numbering over 700 releases.
Prior to joining the studio, he held positions at Rastar Productions, Nabisco, Pillsbury and Johnson & Johnson.
Saksa’s retirement follows the recent exits of two longtime home entertainment executives at rival studios — Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President David Bishop and Universal Pictures domestic home entertainment head Craig Kornblau.
It’s a time of change for the home entertainment business. With DVD sales a shadow of what they were in the mid-aughts, studios are increasingly shifting their attention towards bolstering digital revenue streams — either by licensing titles to platforms such as Amazon or Netflix, or by enhancing digital offerings by releasing films earlier or including extras.
Saksa and a representative from Warner Bros. declined to comment.