Apple TV+ made history last week by becoming the first streaming service to win an Oscar in the all-important Best Picture category, and the award has boosted its subscriber numbers drastically by 25%, reports Variety.
The award went to its CODA heartbreaker that follows the challenges of a deaf family with a hearing child, and the title has been watched three times more than in the week prior to its Oscar win.
The co-production is actually a remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film La Famille Bélier that was filmed on location in the U.S., sharing a producer with the original movie. Apple snatched its distribution rights immediately after the world premiere on January 28, 2021, at the Sundance Film Festival, for a record for the event $25 million.
Apple has been paying exorbitant amounts for movie and TV series distribution or development since the inception of its TV+ streaming service, and the vision and investment of Apple’s TV+ team finally paid off with this somewhat surprising Oscar winner. CODA grabbed two other 2022 Oscar awards, too, for Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
It’s a watershed moment for streaming services, given that big movie festivals have been snubbing their originals for a while now, especially if they didn’t have a theatrical release many months prior to the cameo on the streamer.
