The Invite


The Invite is a 2026 American comedy film directed by Olivia Wilde, and written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. It is an English language remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay. It stars Wilde along with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
The Invite premiered at the Eccles Theater as a part of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2026. It received positive reviews from critics.

Premise

A married couple experiencing a rough patch in their relationship find themselves invited by their neighbors to engage in their weekly orgies.

Cast

Production

It was announced in March 2021 that a remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs was in development from producer David Permut. In March 2022, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were hired to direct the film, with Rashida Jones and Will McCormack set to write the screenplay. In May 2023, retitled The Invite, Amy Adams, Paul Rudd and Tessa Thompson were cast to star.
Development stalled until April 2025, when it was announced Olivia Wilde was now directing, with herself, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton cast to star. Filming began in Los Angeles. On May 22, 2025, it was reported that filming took place in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, specifically at A.P. Giannini Middle School in the Sunset District, a BART train from Glen Park station to Balboa Park station, Make-Out Room nightclub in the Mission District, Castro District Farmers' Market, and Molinari Delicatessen. The film was ultimately shot in 23 days, in chronological order. The film is dedicated to Diane Keaton.

Release

The Invite premiered at the Eccles Theater as a part of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2026. Following its premiere, multiple studios were reported to be in talks for distribution rights to the film, including A24, Netflix, Searchlight Pictures, Focus Features, Sony Pictures, Black Bear Pictures, Neon, and Apple TV, with bids reaching as high as $10 million. The bidding war eventually narrowed down to A24 and Focus, with offers going over $12 million. Despite a last-minute bid from Warner Bros. Pictures' nascent specialty division, A24 ultimately acquired the film's North American distribution rights.

Reception

of Variety deemed the film to be "marvelously entertaining" and compared it to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Similarly, Adam Chitwood of TheWrap compared the result to something like "the great-great-grandchild" of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, underscoring the film to be "endlessly relatable, sometimes uncomfortably so". Benjamin Lee of The Guardian rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, welcoming it as a "genuinely funny and uncommonly intelligent comedy for adults".
Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a B+ rating, assessing that, a bit of stumbling in the third act notwithstanding, the rest of the film is "such a treat, a truly adult comedy with plenty to say and even more laughs to share." of The Hollywood Reporter declared the film as "well worth RSVPing" in the bottom line. Glenn Garner of Deadline wrote that the film "explores dynamics of sex and relationships with raw and endearing honesty". Tim Grierson of Screen International described the film as an "uneven comedy-drama that ultimately has something fresh to say about sex, love and commitment".
Bilge Ebiri of Vulture resented that the characters' "emotional twists don't feel fully earned", also pointing out that The Invite "feels at times like a film that could have benefited from more control", while giving a fully negative assessment about the use of the musical score.