Apple TV+ wins rights to Sundance favorite ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

Apple TV+ has reportedly closed the biggest deal for the biggest hit of the 2022 Virtual Sundance Film Festival. The streaming service has secured the rights to Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth,” after winning a “competitive bidding situation” with some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

Cooper Raiff’s ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ is reportedly coming to Apple TV+

As reported by Variety, Apple TV+ outbid big rivals including Netflix to secure the rights to Cha Cha Real Smooth for $15 million.

“Cha Cha Real Smooth” stars Raiff as a recent graduate working as a bar mitzvah hype man. While on the job, he strikes up a unique friendship with a young mother (Dakota Johnson) and her teenage daughter (Vanessa Burghardt). Leslie Mann, Evan Assante, Raúl Castillo and Odeya Rush fill out the ensemble.

In 2021, the Cupertino tech giant acquired the rights to ‘CODA’, a film previewed at Sundance Film Festival, for a record $25 million, outbidding all competitors to get its hands on the movie.  

Since this is an acquisition of a completed project, Apple TV+ could choose to air it at any time. Currently, we do not know if the deal includes any theatrical release prior to streaming. The rights to CODA were bought in January 2021 and it was streamed by Apple from August 2021.