RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesAmong the various battle lines constantly being drawn between creative types and the money people in Hollywood, one of the freshest is the fight over which movies get consigned to streaming. It’s a debate that just keeps cropping up, whether it’s directors canceling sequels to genuinely popular movies because they didn’t like their hard work getting shunted to digital, or streamers like Netflix luring big name filmmakers into their stable by promising them a token run in cinemas. And it’s the sort of thing where the studios aren’t afraid to throw their money around to get their way.
This is per filmmaker Olivia Wilde, who ( per THR ) made press comments at the Locarno Film Festival this week where she said the studios tried to “bribe” her financiers to shove her new film The Invite onto streaming. “They bribe you to not take theatrical,” Wilde told interviewers, doubling down by adding, “It’s a bribe. They pay you more. 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 was quick to praise her movie’s eventual distributors at A24, though, saying “A24 has been extraordinary because they really believe in the theatrical game.” She also thanked her financiers on the movie, who she said ultimately gave her the choice of whether they’d get a bigger payday by feeding the film into the algo, or whether people could actually watch the movie’s complicated relationship back-and-forths happen in a movie theater. “She could have very easily said no,” Wilde said of her collaborator on the film. “I’m very grateful… There is no genre that benefits from the communal experience more than comedy.”
The Invite —in which Wilde stars with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, as a pair of couples navigating a sexually fraught dinner party—arrived in theaters back in June, where it garnered strong reviews, and a modest take at the box office.
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