Olivia Wilde is back and better than ever—The Invite delivers the whip-smart comedy audiences crave, scoring 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie delivers one of her most personal performances yet in Couture, earning praise for her quietly touching work despite mixed reviews overall.
Insiders say A24 paid top dollar to win The Invite at Sundance in a bidding war, betting big that theatrical comedy is back—and that Wilde can carry a film after her very public split from Jason Sudeikis. As for Jolie, sources note her Paris Fashion Week drama Couture is struggling with critics despite her performance, marking a rare stumble for the otherwise unstoppable actress.
The Invite opens on just 7 screens (AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square in NYC; AMC Burbank, Century City in LA) ahead of nationwide expansion July 10. Couture launches at 235 theaters despite holding only a 43% RT score as of publication—far from the acclaimed heights of her Maria performance.
A24 is gambling that audiences are starving for theatrical comedy—and with The Invite's killer ensemble and fresh reviews, they might just pull it off. But Jolie's couture drama proves that even A-listers can't outshine a weak script.
A24 is rolling the dice on laughs this summer, and if The Invite doesn't deliver at the box office, it won't be for lack of critical support. The Annapurna-produced comedy—directed by and starring Olivia Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Ed Norton, and Penélope Cruz—scored a stellar 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating as it launched Friday on just seven screens in New York and Los Angeles, including premium format and 35mm showings at AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square, Alamo Brooklyn, AMC Burbank, and AMC Century City.
Deadline's review called the film "whip smart," and with good reason: The Invite is a remake of Spanish hit The People Upstairs from Cesc Gay, adapted by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. When couples Joe and Angela (Wilde and Rogen) host dinner with their upstairs neighbors (Norton and Cruz), everything that can go wrong goes worse—a premise ripe for the ensemble chaos this cast can deliver. A24 won the film in a lively bidding war at Sundance, signaling serious confidence in theatrical comedy's return after years of pandemic-era struggles.
"Comedies, if they work, can do nice business in a summer run," Deadline noted, pointing to fresh takes like 500 Days of Summer and Napoleon Dynamite as potential comps. The Invite's modest seven-screen start (expanding next week before going nationwide July 10) suggests A24 is testing the waters carefully—but after Disney's The Odyssey lands July 17, the rest of summer opens up as prime opportunity. Over at Neon, horror continues its dominance with Leviticus holding strong in week two across 965 screens and a $4.4 million cumulative gross—a reminder that audiences are still hungry for genre fare even as prestige comedies try to reclaim theatrical territory.
Angelina Jolie, meanwhile, is fighting an uphill battle with Couture, French writer-director Alice Winocour's fashion-week drama premiering in moderate release at 235 theaters. Jolie stars as Maxine, an American filmmaker swept into a Parisian love story during Fashion Week—but critics have been brutal, with the film sitting at just 43% on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication. Deadline's Pete Hammond offered a partial olive branch, calling it "one of her most personal roles" with "a quietly touching performance played often without lots of dialogue but told delicately on her face and in her eyes." That's cold comfort when stacked against the acclaim Jolie earned for Maria, her 2024 biopic about opera legend Maria Callas.
Sources tell Celebrity Bytes that insiders expected Couture to position Jolie for another awards run—instead, it's fighting an uphill battle with audiences expecting the star's A-game. The TIFF premiere generated modest buzz, but early reviews dampened enthusiasm heading into theatrical release. The crowded specialty market gets even more congested as July 4 approaches.
Rod Davis Lurie returns with WWII action thriller Lucky Strike on a substantial 772 screens—starring Scott Eastwood alongside Colin Hanks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in the story of a soldier trapped behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Janus Films opens Carla Simón's Romeria (Golden Bear winner Alcarras director) at Lincoln Center and Film Forum with Q&As this weekend, expanding July 1. Cannes-premiering Drunken Noodles hits IFC Center exclusively while CAMP brings hipster horror to NYC's Vidiots and select Alamo Drafthouse locations.
Documentary State of Firsts tracks Sarah McBride's history-making campaign as the first transgender person elected to Congress—starting at Angelika in NYC with LA expansion July 2. The summer specialty season is stacked, and A24 is betting big that audiences are ready for theatrical comedy again. Whether The Invite can deliver laughs—and box office—in a crowded market remains to be seen.
