The Invite Lands $12 Million A24 Deal as Olivia Wilde's Marriage Comedy Turns Awards Contender
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 3
The Invite Lands $12 Million A24 Deal as Olivia Wilde's Marriage Comedy Turns Awards Contender
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 3
Summary
A24 bought The Invite for $12 million after its Sundance premiere in January, propelling Olivia Wilde’s latest film into critical-hit, commercial-sensation and awards-contender status.
The film centers on a San Francisco dinner party that spirals into a dark sex comedy about marriage, parenting and “bed death,” drawing on psychotherapist Esther Perel’s ideas about rebooting relationships.
Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton said audiences have responded with relieved, adult laughter, while the cast developed the script with Rashida Jones and Will McCormack through improvisation and a rare chronological 3-week shoot.
For Wilde, the success marks a sharp rebound from 2022’s poorly received Don’t Worry Darling and surpasses the acclaim for her 2019 directorial debut Booksmart.
Norton and Wilde frame the movie as more than froth, arguing that tech, post-Covid isolation and wider global trauma have deepened disconnection from intimacy that the film tries to confront.