Wilde Rejects Netflix's Higher Bid for Theatrical 'The
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- Olivia Wilde directs and stars as Angela in 'The Invite,' a one-location comedy about two neighboring couples — played by Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penélope Cruz — whose noise-dispute tensions boil over at a dinner party.
- Screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormick joined Wilde, Rogen, Cruz, and Norton for a two-week workshop that fused script rewrites with character improvisation and what Wilde called a 'collective confession' about relationships.
- Wilde shot the single-location film in chronological order so Rogen's on-set improvisations — including a 'count the rings' line and a condom joke that helped earn the R-rating — could survive into the final cut.
- A24 acquired 'The Invite' after Sundance in what the article calls the festival's most heated bidding war, beating out bids from Warner Bros Clockwork, Focus, Searchlight, NEON, Apple, Sony, and Amazon.
- Netflix offered more money than A24, but Wilde made a theatrical release 'non-negotiable' with backing from Megan Ellison's Annapurna, which had financed the film through production.
- 'The Invite' opens in select theaters June 26 and expands wide July 10, with A24 pushing a summer release — a counter to Wilde's complaint that 'this idea that comedies belong on streaming is something that we have slowly accepted.'
- Wilde argued that comedies require undivided attention because 'if you have a phone in your hands, you won't get it,' and warned that studios are now 'making movies specifically for people with a phone in their hand.'
Why it matters: A24 winning the bidding war over Netflix's higher offer shows a specialty distributor underwriting a theatrical comedy against the industry's streaming-first economics — a notable exception to the pattern Wilde criticizes, with the film's July wide release serving as a live test of whether adult-audience comedies can still draw crowds.
