Apple TV’s ‘CODA’ Gets Blu-ray Release Date
Ryan Christoffel reported for 9to5 Mac earlier this week Apple’s CODA is going from streaming to solid state, as the film soon will be available on Blu-ray and DVD discs.
Pre-orders are happening now ahead of the disc’s release on November 4.
“This [CODA Blu-ray] release seems to be part of a growing trend of streamers being more willing to offer physical movies for purchase,” Christoffel wrote on Wednesday. “Despite previously favoring streaming-only availability, Apple now appears more open to offering Blu-ray versions of its movies.”
As Christoffel notes, CODA has tremendous historical significance as its 2022 Best Picture win—coupled with Troy Kotsur’s Best Supporting Actor victory—are firsts not only for Apple and Apple TV as the first streaming-only film to win Hollywood’s most prestigious award, but also for Kotsur as the first Deaf actor to win an Oscar. As a literal CODA myself, the movie holds a special place in my heart not merely for the subject matter, but for the representational gains it affords CODAs and the Deaf community.
While I, like most people, am a huge proponent of streaming content, I have begun to amass a small collection of my most favorite movies in 4K Blu-ray to go along with my dozens of DVDs from two decades ago. In fact, just yesterday I took delivery of Conclave from Amazon, about a fictitious papal election, and plan to pre-order CODA soon too. (I also have Season 1 of Severance in keeping with the Apple TV theme.) I’m pretty picky about which Blu-rays I’m collecting; space is a precious commodity at my house, so I’m hellbent on getting only the films I cherish most. From a technological perspective, I’m also motivated by the fact, as somewhat of a home theater nerd, the best picture quality comes from physical media versus streaming, and I’d like to take fullest advantage of my spectacular 77” LG C3 OLED in every way possible. I have the critically-acclaimed Panasonic UB820 Blu-ray player hooked up to said TV. For those times when I want to have a movie night with, say, CODA, I can pop the disc into the device and enjoy (again).
I should mention too that there indeed is a pro-accessibility argument for streaming versus Blu-ray. First and foremost, there are the costs associated with getting a good Blu-ray player itself, let alone the discs. More to the point, however, is the physicality to physical media. To wit, pressing a button on one’s Siri Remote may be far more accessible than opening the disc’s case, taking out the disc, and putting it into the player without scratching the disc, etc. For many people with certain motor disabilities, Blu-ray may be a nonstarter for this workflow. It’s a valid reason, and illustrative of the greater societal shift to embrace streaming music and movies for convenience’s sake.
News of CODA on Blu-ray comes not long after it was announced by Apple earlier this month F1: The Movie starts streaming in December. It’s also now available on Blu-ray.
