Olivia Wilde’s ‘The Invite’ Sells to A24 Following Sundance Premiere

After an old-fashion, multi-day bidding war, Olivia Wilde‘s Sundance darling “The Invite” has sold to A24.

A24 and Focus Features were locked in a tense fight for rights to the relationship comedy after other interested buyers, like Neon, Netflix, Apple, Searchlight and new distributor Black Bear, backed out of negotiations. The sale is north of $12 million, according to sources familiar with the terms of the deal.

Wilde reteamed with Megan Ellison’s Annapurna on the project, the studio that made her directorial debut, “Booksmart.” UTA Independent Film Group and FilmNation co-repped the sale.

Wilde pushed for a traditional theatrical release for “The Invite,” which she directed and co-stars in with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton. The hilarious ensemble comedy plays out during a dinner party between a couple who are going through a rough patch and their upstairs neighbors, who turn out to be swingers. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack wrote the screenplay, a remake of the Spanish film “The People Upstairs.” CAA reps Wilde and Cruz. UTA reps Rogen, Norton and McCormack and Jones.

So far, it’s been a slow sales market out of the festival’s final hurrah in Park City. (Sundance heads to Boulder in 2027). Neon is closing a sale for the conversion therapy thriller “Leviticus” for a price tag that’s reportedly in the seven-figure range. “Wicker,” a fantasy comedy with Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage and Alexander Skarsgard, as well as the harrowing drama “Josephine” starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, have also been drawing interest from buyers.

“The Invite” is Wilde’s third directorial effort — she also helmed 2019’s “Booksmart” and 2023’s “Don’t Worry Darling” — and her second film at this year’s festival. She was also at Sundance with director Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” an erotic thriller in which she co-stars with Cooper Hoffman.

Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised “The Invite” as a “bravura dinner-party dramedy” that “keeps you laughing and never stops surprising.”