Production Budget Analysis

What was the production budget for CODA?

Directed by Sian Heder, with Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur leading the cast, CODA was produced by Vendôme Pictures with a confirmed budget of $10,000,000, placing it in the low-budget category for drama films.

At $10,000,000, CODA was produced on a modest budget. Lower-budget films benefit from reduced break-even thresholds, with profitability achievable at approximately $25,000,000.

Budget Comparison — Similar Productions

• By the Sea (2015): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $3,727,746 → ROI: -63% • Eye for an Eye (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A • Goal! (2005): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $27,610,873 → ROI: 176% • Phantom (2013): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross $1,197,759 → ROI: -88% • War of the Worlds (2025): Budget $10,000,000 | Gross N/A

Key Budget Allocation Categories

▸ Above-the-Line Talent Drama films live or die on the strength of their performances. Securing award-caliber actors and experienced directors represents the single largest budget line item, often consuming 30–40% of the total production budget.

▸ Location Filming & Period Production Design Authentic locations — whether contemporary or historical — require scouting, permits, travel, lodging, and often significant dressing to match the story's time period. Period dramas add the cost of era-accurate props, vehicles, and set decoration.

▸ Post-Production, Color Grading & Score The editorial process for dramas is typically longer than genre films, with careful attention to pacing and tone. Color grading, a nuanced musical score, and detailed sound mixing are critical to achieving the emotional resonance that defines the genre.

Key Production Personnel

CAST: Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo Key roles: Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi; Marlee Matlin as Jackie Rossi; Troy Kotsur as Frank Rossi; Eugenio Derbez as Bernardo Villalobos

DIRECTOR: Sian Heder CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paula Huidobro MUSIC: Marius de Vries EDITING: Geraud Brisson PRODUCTION: Vendôme Pictures, Pathé, Picture Perfect Entertainment FILMED IN: France, United States of America

Box Office Performance

CODA earned $1,905,058 in worldwide box office revenue.

Break-Even Analysis

Using the industry-standard 2.5x multiplier (P&A + exhibitor shares of 40–50% + distribution fees), CODA needed approximately $25,000,000 to break even. The film fell $23,094,942 short in theatrical revenue. Ancillary streams (home media, streaming, TV) may have bridged the gap.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Revenue: $1,905,058 Budget: $10,000,000 Net: $-8,094,942 ROI: -80.9%

Profitability Assessment

VERDICT: Unprofitable (Theatrical)

CODA earned $1,905,058 against a $10,000,000 budget (-81% ROI), falling short of theatrical profitability. Ancillary revenue may have reduced the deficit.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

The underperformance may have increased risk aversion around low-budget drama productions.

In 2023, Screen Rant ranked it number 5 on its list of "The 10 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)," writing that "Every so often, there is a small indie movie that comes out of nowhere and surprises everyone. CODA is the most recent example of such a sleeper hit and one of the most crowd-pleasing movies of the 2020s...this small family drama that was filled with light-hearted moments won over so many people and left plenty of tears in their eyes."

In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 280.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Casting

Marlee Matlin, an award-winning and internationally known actress, was the first person cast for the film. During the development process, the film's financiers resisted casting deaf actors for the remaining deaf characters, but Matlin threatened to drop out unless deaf actors were cast, and the financiers ultimately relented.

Heder described the casting as an opportunity for Matlin to play against type, her previous roles have been "'put-together' and classy characters". Heder said, "Marlee, in real life, is much more funny, and she has a dirty sense of humor. This (role) was a working-class fisherman's wife, and she has a lot of elements of her personality that were very right for this character." Matlin used her connections with Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles, California, to help Heder find additional deaf actors. Heder saw Troy Kotsur in a Deaf West production and cast him as the fisherman and father. She cast Daniel Durant after finding him through auditions. Matlin, Kotsur, and Durant were already familiar with one another through their collaboration on the Deaf West production of the musical Spring Awakening.

The director also auditioned hundreds of teenage girls before casting Emilia Jones as the hearing member of the deaf family. Jones took voice lessons and learned ASL for nine months before filming started. Heder also chose to cast Eugenio Derbez as the girl's choirmaster, seeing him as a fit for her "amalgamation of Heder's college rhythm teacher and her high school drama and English teachers".

▸ Filming & Locations

The film was shot on location in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the middle of 2019.

In the film, the family lives in what WBUR's The ARTery described as a "creaky clapboard cottage [with] a yard jammed with boats, traps, and nets". During location scouting, Heder came across what she found to be the ideal house for the family home and received permission from its residents to use it as a filming location. The choirmaster's home was a Victorian-style house on the sea, where Heder had visited family friends multiple times in her childhood, and they allowed her to film there.

A fisherman who educated Heder in local fishing practices allowed his fishing trawler to be used as a film set. Scenes set in a flooded quarry were filmed at the Steel Derrick quarry in Rockport, Massachusetts.

[Filming] The film was shot on location in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the middle of 2019.

▸ Music & Score

Marius de Vries composed the film's soundtrack and compiled and co-produced the album with Nicholai Baxter, featuring the original score and incorporated songs. Speaking on creating music for the film, which had predominantly deaf characters playing the leading roles, he called it his "biggest challenge" and added that the music should be strong to connect with the emotions. Most of the incorporated songs in the film were recorded live and sung by the lead actors Emilia Jones and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, accompanied by the CODA choir, who were students at Berklee College of Music and Gloucester High School. The soundtrack also featured an original song sung by Jones, "Beyond the Shore," which is played during the end credits of the film. The soundtrack album was released by Republic Records on August 13, 2021, coinciding with the film's release.

On March 23, 2022, it was reported by The New York Times that, in an effort to keep the film relevant after awards season, its producers plan to team up with Deaf West Theatre to develop a stage musical adaptation of the film, with a creative team and production scheduled yet to be announced. DJ Kurs, Deaf West's artistic director, expressed excitement for the project: "As a Deaf person, I knew from the start that CODA would make a perfect musical: It addresses our relationship with music and how we move through the world of sound like immigrants in a foreign country, learning new, seemingly arbitrary rules on the fly." Like Deaf West's production of Spring Awakening, the musical will incorporate both signing in American Sign Language and live singing. Kurs noted his desire to have Matlin and Durant also reprise their roles as Jackie and Leo, respectively, along with Kotsur.

In August 2024, Deaf West Theatre announced its 2024–25 season and officially confirmed that the musical is still in the works.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Won 3 Oscars. 69 wins & 149 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Sundance Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic ★ Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award ★ Gotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance ★ Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in an Independent Film ★ Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor ★ Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic ★ Sundance Special Jury Prize ★ Academy Award for Best Picture (94th Academy Awards)

Nominations: ○ Academy Award for Best Picture (94th Academy Awards)

Additional Recognition: At the 94th Academy Awards, CODA won all three awards that it was nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Kotsur), and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is the first film produced or distributed by a streaming service, the first Sundance film, and the first film featuring predominantly deaf actors in leading roles to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film had the fewest nominations for a Best Picture winner since 1932's Grand Hotel, and is also the sixth film and the first since 2018's Green Book to win Best Picture without a director nomination.

CODA was nominated for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Supporting Actor (for Kotsur) at the 79th Golden Globe Awards. It received three nominations at the 75th British Academy Film Awards, winning two, including Best Supporting Actor for Kotsur, making him the first deaf person to ever win a BAFTA, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Heder. At the 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards, the film made history with Kotsur, Matlin and Durant becoming the first deaf/non-hearing performers to win, along with Jones, Derbez and Walsh-Peelo, for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. At the 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards, the film was also awarded the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture.

CODA was one of 28 films that received the ReFrame Stamp for 2021, awarded by the gender equity coalition ReFrame for films that are proven to have gender-balanced hiring.