Olivia Wilde’s Dramatic Comedy The Invite Sells to A24 for $12 Million+

Sundance Hit The Invite Sells to A24

Olivia Wilde’s sex-themed comic drama, The Invite, nabbed a $12 million-plus deal at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz are showcased in director Olivia Wilde (Booksmart)’s new dramedy, The Invite, which has just netted a smooth deal north of $12 million at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Wilde is no stranger to making thought-provoking movies, having helmed the provocative Don’t Worry Darling, for Warner Bros. This time out, she’s back on the same type of film-making turf as she’s pushing buttons and stirring up controversy. Audiences were nevertheless warm and receptive to the new movie, The Invite, and A24 is the studio which has picked up the North American rights to the dramedy.

While Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz star in this new American film, it is actually a remake of a Spanish film titled, The People Upstairs. This new movie’s premise revolves around a set of neighbors who get together for dinner and the gathering takes an interesting turn as one of the couples involved turns out to be a pair of swingers. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack penned this remake. A traditional theatrical release is expected for Wilde’s ambitious new picture.

Wilde’s previous two films as a director didn’t exactly set the box-office on fire, but did moderately well for the types of movies that they were. Booksmart earned north of $20 million in its domestic run back in 2019 while Don’t Worry Darling made $87 million worldwide with slightly more than half of that total coming from domestic ticket sales. While The Invite looks to score box-office results somewhere in between these two films, one can’t rule out the possibility of it becoming a sleeper hit and finding a large audience considering the talented cast that is involved with the project.

While Rogen is at his peak right now thanks to his work on the show, The Studio, Norton and Cruz haven’t really headlined a big box-office smash recently. Norton gained respect for his turn in Birdman and lost it again with Collateral Beauty. He had also been stirring up buzz with tiny roles in Wes Anderson films fairly recently. In 2024, he was back on top with a terrific supporting role in A Complete Unknown and Cruz came within an inch of an Oscar nomination for her stellar work in 2023’s Ferrari.

While the jury is still out on whether or not The Invite can get its stars Oscar nods, A24 may want to work on its approach to marketing Sundance films. Last year’s Sorry, Baby and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You faltered at the box-office despite being great, remarkable movies. A strong marketing push for The Invite would go a long way to prevent history from repeating itself.

Leave your thoughts on A24’s acquisition of The Invite below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more movie news can visit our Movie News Page, our Movie News Twitter Page, and our Movie News Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Apple News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, Bluesky, and Threads. This news was brought to our attention by Variety.