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

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

A24 and Focus Features have been locked in a tense fight for rights to the relationship comedy after other consumers, like Neon, Netflix, Apple, Searchlight and new distributor Black Bear, backed out of negotiations. The sale is north of $12 million, according to sources acquainted with the phrases 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 conventional theatrical release for “The Invite,” which she directed and co-stars in with Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton. The hilarious ensemble comedy performs out during a cocktail party between a pair who’re going by means of a tough patch and their upstairs neighbors, who flip out to be swingers. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack wrote the screenplay, a remake of the Spanish movie “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 pageant’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 ticket that’s reportedly in the seven-figure vary. “Wicker,” a fantasy comedy with Olivia Colman, Peter Dinklage and Alexander Skarsgard, in addition to the harrowing drama “Josephine” starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, have also been drawing curiosity from consumers.

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

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