Olivia Wilde says filmmakers are being ‘bribed’ to skip theaters

Olivia Wilde is not ready to let the big screen become the little screen.

At the 2026 Locarno Film Festival, where she premiered The Invite, the actress-director opened up about the battle to keep her new comedy in theaters — and she didn’t exactly mince words about the alternative.

“They bribe you to not take theatrical,” Wilde said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “We have to fight for it.”

She doubled down, explaining why filmmakers can find themselves tempted to send movies straight to streaming.

“It’s a bribe. They pay you more,” Olivia added. “Not the filmmaker, no; the financiers will get a lot more money to go to streaming, and you can take that bribe and give that up if that’s where your priorities lie.”

Wilde said her financier ultimately gave her the freedom to make the theatrical call, something she described as a decision she “doesn’t take lightly.”

Then came the A24 praise.

“A24 has been extraordinary because they really believe in the theatrical game,” the filmmaker said. 

“FilmNation made the international deals around the world, all theatrical. So all these great distributors around the planet have invested in this film being seen in theaters. So, I’m very grateful.”

For Wilde, keeping comedies on the big screen is especially important.

“There is no genre that benefits from the communal [viewing] experience more than comedy,” she said, arguing that comedies have too often “been delegated to that second tier that really doesn’t deserve cinema.”

Wilde directs and stars in The Invite alongside Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton. 

The comedy follows a struggling married couple whose dinner party with their mysterious neighbors takes a very unexpected turn.