Earlier this week, the much-valued company Apple had created history by becoming the first streaming service ever to win the Best Picture Oscar for the widely acclaimed heartrending drama ‘CODA’. In doing that, it had beaten Netflix’s top contender – Jane Campion’s western drama ‘The Power of the Dog’ to bag the coveted trophy. CODA had won all three Oscar awards for which it was nominated i.e., Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sian Heder).
And now, in a related development, CODA’s historic Academy Award win has reportedly (via Variety) resulted in a significant increase of 25% in relation to the new viewers for the Apple TV+ OTT platform. Not just that, CODA’s Oscar win, albeit unsurprisingly, has further brought a whopping 300% increase pertaining to the film’s viewership compared to last week on Apple TV Plus.
A remake of the 2014 French film ‘The Belier Family’, Sian Heder’s ‘CODA’ features Emilia Jones in the role of a teenage girl, who is compelled to choose between helping her deaf family in their fishing family business and pursuing her own singing career. The film also features Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, and Daniel Durant in prominent roles.
CODA’s Oscar win, and the movie’s subsequent viewership increase, are a testament to the fact that Apple has a knack for picking up the right titles from the right places. CODA, which was a critics’ darling at the 2021 Sundance film festival where it had its world premiere, was acquired by Apple for a whopping $25 million.
Besides ‘CODA’, the streamer’s other film which was nominated was Joel Coen’s solo directorial ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ (Denzel Washington in the Best Actor category). Previously, Tom Hanks’ starrer war movie ‘Greyhound’ had also bagged an Oscar nomination in the Best Sound category.
Some eagerly anticipated Apple TV original films include Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller ‘Emancipation’, ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever’ starring Russel Crowe, Bill Murray, and Zac Efron, comedy-drama ‘Raymond and Ray’, Ryan Reynolds starrer Christmas themed musical film ‘Spirited’, Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller ‘Argylle’, Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and Ridley Scott’s historical drama ‘Napoleon’, amongst others.