Kevin Tsujihara is stepping down as chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., according to a WarnerMedia statement sent out Monday.
This exit comes a few weeks after The Hollywood Reporter ran a story alleging the studio head had a sexual relationship with actress Charlotte Kirk and promised to help get her acting roles. In a statement to THR for that story, Kirk denied any inappropriate behavior occurred between her and Tsujihara.
“It is in the best interest of WarnerMedia, Warner Bros., our employees and our partners for Kevin to step down as Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros.,” WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey said in the Monday statement. “Kevin has contributed greatly to the studio’s success over the past 25 years and for that we thank him. Kevin acknowledges that his mistakes are inconsistent with the Company’s leadership expectations and could impact the Company’s ability to execute going forward.”
Tsujihara has been the head of Warner Bros. since 2013 and was the first executive of Asian descent to head a major movie studio. Days after the THR story ran, he apologized to the staff for the mistakes he had made in his personal life.
Before the THR story broke, Tsujihara was planning to have new responsibilities in the WarnerMedia era, following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner. He was to head WarnerMedia's kids and animation properties, including Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang.
At Warner Bros., Tsujihara oversaw the Batman "Dark Knight" trilogy, the "Harry Potter" spinoff movies, and the DC Comics movies.
According to the release, a successor for Tsujihara has not been named yet and WarnerMedia is continuing to work with a third-party law firm to complete its investigation on the allegations against Tsujihara.
Following the Warner Media release, Variety reported that an internal leadership team will take over Tsujihara's role beginning Monday. It will consist of Warner Bros. pictures group chairman Toby Emmerich, WB Television Group president and COO Peter Roth, and two other high-level executives, one of whom will be a woman.
