Three-time Oscar winner CODA is returning to theaters this Friday for a limited run in over 600 locations. The film will be available with open captions to be accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing.
Apple Original Films made history on Sunday night becoming the first streamer to take home Best Picture. CODA also won trophies for Troy Kotsur as Best Supporting Actor and Siân Heder for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“As our industry recognizes CODA with its highest honor, we’re excited once again to bring this moving film to theaters so that audiences can share in the experience of watching it together,” says Erica Anderson from Apple Original Films’ Distribution team. “As with previous theatrical runs, all showings will have open captions, so that the film is accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.”
CODA is the first movie with a predominantly Deaf cast to receive a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture as well as the PGA’s top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures (for Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, and Patrick Wachsberger). Kotsur is the first Deaf male actor to ever receive an Oscar, a BAFTA Award, a SAG Award, a Film Independent Spirit Award, and a Critics Choice Award for his moving performance in the supporting actor category. Filmmaker Heder was also lauded with this year’s WGA Award and BAFTA Film Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
At the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, where Apple picked up CODA for $25M, the pic received four awards: the Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast, the Directing Award, the Audience Award, and the Grand Jury Prize. The pic was the first top Sundance winner to receive an Oscar for Best Picture. Other awards for CODA include the AFI Award, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture, and four Hollywood Critics Association Film Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Heder, and Best Supporting Actor for Kotsur, as well as an HCA Spotlight Award.
CODA debuted in theaters in about 50 runs and 20 markets, as well as on AppleTV+ on Aug. 13. Apple does not report grosses and industry estimates peg the pic’s lifetime gross at around $300K. Samba TV, which only measures streaming viewership on terrestrial SmartTVs (not mobile) reports that just before Oscars, the lifetime viewership for CODA since August was under 1M views; this compared to Netflix’s stateside viewership of Don’t Look Up (a Christmas release), and Power of the Dog, a Dec. 1 release, which respectively drew 10.3M and 3.4M.