Olivia Wilde filmed The Invite at a BART station, a high school and a deli in San Francisco

One of the San Francisco locations is Glen Park BART Station at 2901 Diamond Street. On May 20, a 25-person production team including Rogen and Wilde filmed at the station under a BART filming permit – with the station remaining in regular service throughout. BART spokesperson Jim Allison confirmed that Rogen's character Joe – a frustrated musician who works as a music teacher and commutes with a bicycle – was filmed getting off a train at Glen Park, taking the escalator and exiting the station. The crew then boarded an in-service train running between Glen Park and Balboa Park, making the passengers around the actors genuine commuters rather than a controlled crowd of background performers. The approximately four-hour shoot was organised around normal BART operations. 

Earlier that same Tuesday morning, production moved into A.P. Giannini Middle School at 3151 Ortega Street in the Outer Sunset. The movie filmed inside the school's auditorium – a scene featuring only Rogen, while Wilde directed. Assistant Principal Heidi Smoot confirmed the shoot to SFGATE and noted that the crew was particularly drawn to the auditorium's character: "They really like the look of the auditorium. It's kind of Art Deco – old, original chairs." The location fits Joe's professional life as a music teacher who has not become the musician he intended to be. The worn-in appearance of an actual San Francisco public school does that for free. Still, word got out to the 1,300 students on campus. "They were very excited," Smoot said.

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The second major day began in the Mission District, with filming at the Make-Out Room at 3225 22nd Street – the long-running nightlife venue known for its distinctive shimmering pink sign, a fixture of Mission nightlife since the 1990s. Production vans filled the surrounding block of 22nd Street between Bartlett and Mission. By noon, the crew had unfurled a white screen covering the entrance. Police officers stood at the corner of Bartlett and 22nd. 

Later on Wednesday, Wilde was filmed shopping at the Castro Farmers' Market at 270 Noe Street – the weekly market at the foot of the Lookout on Noe Street between Market and Beaver. The market operated as normal during filming, with Wilde's movements tracked by a camera crew at the periphery. She was spotted picking out radishes, flowers and eggs, paying for her haul at the Fifth Crow Farm booth.

North Beach supplied the final stop in San Francisco: Molinari Delicatessen at 373 Columbus Avenue – San Francisco's oldest Italian deli, operating on Columbus Avenue since 1896. A filming notice on the door read: "Closing Early @ 3:30 for Filming. Grazie!" Short stretches of Vallejo Street, Columbus Avenue and Stockton Street became no-stopping zones from 2pm to 8pm for the interior shoot.

The location audiences see most often in The Invite is not a real San Francisco apartment. Production designer Jade Healy built Joe and Angela's home from scratch at Sunset Las Palmas Studios in Hollywood, having first scouted real San Francisco homes for inspiration. The interconnected rooms, hallways and ceilings – the entire physical world of the dinner party – were constructed in Los Angeles. San Francisco's streets led to this apartment. The apartment itself was always California, just a different one.

The Invite is in cinemas from June 26, 2026 and streaming on HBO from October 23, 2026.