The Invite proves adult comedy never died: it just needs a second life

Who killed the adult comedy? Every few years the industry holds a funeral, and every few years someone sneaks in a body that's still breathing. This time it's four people at a dinner party, a pair of loud upstairs neighbors and a charcuterie board.

Here's what happened. Olivia Wilde's The Invite premiered at Sundance in January and landed at A24 after what Wilde described to The Ankler as an exhausting, two-night bidding war. Netflix reportedly made the higher offer. The film then grossed nearly $60 million worldwide in theaters, by The Ankler's count, while Deadline put it at over $55 million. It began streaming exclusively on HBO Max on October 23.

The real story is the order of operations

The tempting reading is "streaming saves comedy." We think that's lazy. The Invite didn't start on a platform, where it might have vanished into a scroll of thumbnails. Wilde, by her own account, made a proper theatrical release part of the A24 deal. The film then played to audiences who stayed afterward to talk, and she told The Ankler about repeat viewers bringing their partners and about double features with older relationship classics. That is word of mouth with a face on it.

Then came the streaming window, with the reputation already built. The film arrived after its Sundance premiere and a summer in theaters, and Decider's verdict was a flat "Stream it." A forum post even claims a 97% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, though we'd take that one with the usual caveat. Our reading: whatever audience the film finds at home is, in part, the dividend of a theatrical campaign. The sequence did the marketing.

Studios keep misreading what adult comedy needs

Adult comedy isn't an orphan because audiences don't want it. We suspect it's an orphan because it doesn't fit a spreadsheet built for tentpoles. One review called the film a palette cleanser: no capes, no franchises, no IP. We'd argue that's exactly the pitch, and a nearly $60 million run suggests there is hunger for it. It isn't an IP-free fluke either: it's a remake of Cesc Gay's Spanish film Sentimental, so a familiar story was there, just not in a form that shouts at a boardroom.

The cast helps, of course: Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton alongside Wilde. We wouldn't pretend any adult comedy without that lineup would repeat this. Star power is part of the recipe, and it's probably not cheap. That's the nuance the thesis needs: the genre isn't dead, but it isn't effortless to resurrect either.

What studios should do with this

Stop asking "theater or streamer?" as if it were a binary. The Invite suggests a better question: which sequence makes each release bigger? A theatrical run made the film an event, and the home window lets it find the people who skip cinemas. Wilde's decision to pass on the reportedly bigger streamer offer looks, at least from here, like a smart bet on that sequence.

There's a caveat. One film is not a trend, and we don't yet know how it performs on HBO Max. If the next adult comedy follows the same path with similar results, then we can talk about a business model. Until then, call it a proof of concept.

Our verdict: greenlight more of these, give them a real theatrical release, and let streaming do what it does best, which is the long tail. And if you haven't seen it yet, a dinner party gone wrong is a fine way to spend a Saturday night. The Invite is on HBO Max now.