For the first time in three years, the fall movie industrial complex is lurching back into high gear. Festival red carpets are rolled out. Oscar campaigns are primed. Long-awaited blockbusters, like and are poised for big box office.

But after the tumult of the pandemic, can the fall movie season just go back to way it was? Many are hoping it can. After two springtime editions, the Academy Awards have returned to . The Golden Globes, after near-cancellation, . Some movies, too, are trying to recapture a before-times spirit. At the Toronto Film Festival in September, Rian JohnsonB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淕lass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,B次元官网网址� has booked the same theater B次元官网网址淜nives OutB次元官网网址� premiered to a packed house almost exactly three years ago.

B次元官网网址淪eems like yesterday,B次元官网网址� Johnson says, laughing. B次元官网网址淥K, a few things have happened.B次元官网网址�

After an all-but-wiped-out 2020 autumn and a 2021 season hobbled by the delta and omicron COVID-19 variants, this fall could, maybe, just maybe be something more like the normal annual cultural revival that happens every fall, when most of the yearB次元官网网址檚 best movies arrive.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e all, I think, just trying to will it into existence as at least some version of what we knew before,B次元官网网址� says Johnson. B次元官网网址淎s with everything, you kind of just have to dive into the pool and see what the waterB次元官网网址檚 like. IB次元官网网址檓 really hoping that at least the illusion of normalcy holds. I guess thatB次元官网网址檚 all normalcy is.B次元官网网址�

But B次元官网网址淕lass Onion,B次元官网网址� with Daniel CraigB次元官网网址檚 Benoit Blanc in a new mystery, is also a reminder of how much has changed. After B次元官网网址淜nives OutB次元官网网址� was a box-office hit for Lionsgate, grossing $311 million worldwide for Lionsgate, Netflix shelled out $450 million to snap up the rights to two sequels. And while exhibitors and the streaming company discussed a larger theatrical release for B次元官网网址淕lass OnionB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� a surefire hit if it did B次元官网网址� a more modest rollout in theaters is expected before the films lands Dec. 23 on Netflix.

The balance between theatrical and streaming remains unsettled. But after and , theatrical moviegoing B次元官网网址� with its billions in annual ticket sales and cultural footprint B次元官网网址� is looking pretty good. For the first time in years, moviegoing has a strong wind at its back. Or at least it did until due largely to a dearth of new wide releases.

B次元官网网址淚f you look at how many movies we had compared to what business we did, we were operating at 2019 levels,B次元官网网址� says John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. B次元官网网址淲e had 70% of the supply of wide-release movies in the first seven months and we did 71% of the business we did in the same period in 2019. Moviegoers are back in pre-pandemic numbers, itB次元官网网址檚 just we still need more movies.B次元官网网址�

That will be less of an issue as the fall season ramps up. B次元官网网址淲akanda ForeverB次元官网网址� (Nov. 11) and B次元官网网址淭he Way of the WaterB次元官网网址� (Dec. 16) may each vie with the summer smash B次元官网网址淭op Gun: MaverickB次元官网网址� ($1.36 billion worldwide and still counting) for the yearB次元官网网址檚 top film. Less clear, though, is if the fallB次元官网网址檚 robust slate of adult-driven films and Oscar contenders can once again drive moviegoing. from Apple TV+, ran the awards gauntlet without a cent of box office.

Among the most anticipated films hitting the fall festival circuit and theaters are Steven SpielbergB次元官网网址檚 semi-autobiographical B次元官网网址淭he FabelmansB次元官网网址� (Nov. 23); B次元官网网址淏londeB次元官网网址� (Sept. 23), starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe; Todd FieldsB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淭脕RB次元官网网址� (Oct. 7), with Cate Blanchett; Sam MendesB次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淓mpire of LightB次元官网网址� (Dec. 9); B次元官网网址淭he SonB次元官网网址� (Nov. 11), Florian ZellerB次元官网网址檚 follow-up to B次元官网网址淭he FatherB次元官网网址�; Chinonye ChukwuB次元官网网址檚 Emmett Till saga B次元官网网址淭illB次元官网网址� (Oct. 14); Martin McDonaghB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淭he Banshees of InisherinB次元官网网址� (Oct. 21); James GrayB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淎rmageddon TimeB次元官网网址� (Oct. 28); and (Oct. 7).

Superhero films (B次元官网网址淏lack Adam,B次元官网网址� Oct. 21, starring Dwayne Johnson), kids movies (B次元官网网址淟yle Lyle Crocodile,B次元官网网址� Oct. 7), horror flicks (B次元官网网址淗alloween Ends,B次元官网网址� Oct. 14) rom-coms (B次元官网网址淭icket to Paradise,B次元官网网址� Oct. 21, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney) and more high-flying adventures (B次元官网网址淒evotion,B次元官网网址� Nov. 23) will also mix in, as will prominent titles from streamers. Those include AmazonB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淢y PolicemanB次元官网网址� (Oct. 21), with Harry Styles; and Netflix releases B次元官网网址淏ardoB次元官网网址� (in theaters Nov. 4), by Alejandro Gonz谩lez I帽谩rritu; B次元官网网址淲hite NoiseB次元官网网址� (in theaters Nov. 25) by Noah Baumbach; and Guillermo del ToroB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淧inocchioB次元官网网址� (streaming Dec. 9).

But if much of the fall movie season is about restoring what was lost the last few years, for some upcoming movies, change is the point. B次元官网网址淲oman KingB次元官网网址� (Sept. 16), directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood and starring Viola Davis, is muscular fact-based epic about a West African army of female warriors. To Prince-Blythewood, the filmmaker of B次元官网网址淟ove & BasketballB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淭he Old Guard,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淲oman KingB次元官网网址� represents B次元官网网址渢he chance to reframe what it means to be female and feminine.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 think we have ever seen a movie like this before. So much of our history has been hidden or ignored or erased,B次元官网网址� says Blythewood. B次元官网网址淏次元官网网址楤raveheart,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址楪ladiator,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址楲ast of the Mohicans.B次元官网网址� I love those movies. Now, here was our chance to tell our story in this genre.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淏rosB次元官网网址� (Sept. 30), too, is something different. The film, starring and co-written by B次元官网网址淏illy on the StreetB次元官网网址� comedian Billy Eichner, is the first gay rom-com by a major studio (Universal). All of its principal cast members are LGBTQ. Comedies have struggled in theaters in recent years but B次元官网网址淏ros,B次元官网网址� produced by Judd Apatow, hopes a new perspective will enliven a familiar genre.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a historic movie in many ways,B次元官网网址� says Eichner. B次元官网网址淭hatB次元官网网址檚 not something we thought about when we were first developing it. Nobody sits down and says, B次元官网网址楲etB次元官网网址檚 write a historic movie.B次元官网网址� We said, B次元官网网址楲etB次元官网网址檚 make a hilarious movie.B次元官网网址� It will make people laugh but itB次元官网网址檚 unlike anything the vast majority of people have seen.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淏rosB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址淲oman KingB次元官网网址� are productions meant to challenge the status quo of Hollywood. ThatB次元官网网址檚 also part of the nature of B次元官网网址淪he SaidB次元官网网址� (Nov. 18), a dramatization of New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan TwoheyB次元官网网址檚 investigation into movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Sarah PolleyB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淲omen TalkingB次元官网网址� (Dec. 2) likewise chronicles a real-life female uprising. ItB次元官网网址檚 based on events from 2009, when Bolivian Mennonite women gathered together after having been drugged and raped by the men in their colony.

Olivia WildeB次元官网网址檚 buzzed-about B次元官网网址淒onB次元官网网址檛 Worry Darling,B次元官网网址� starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as a married couple living in a 1950s-style suburban nightmare-slash-male fantasy, approaches some similar themes through a science-fiction lens.

B次元官网网址淚 want to make something that is just really entertaining and fun and interesting, but actually is my way of provoking conversations about real issues like body autonomy,B次元官网网址� says Wilde. B次元官网网址淚 didnB次元官网网址檛 know it would be as timely as it is right now. Never in my wildest nightmares did I believe Roe would have been overturned right before the release of this film.B次元官网网址�

Other movie production timelines seem to exist almost apart from our earthly reality. James CameronB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淎vatar: The Way of the WaterB次元官网网址� will debut 13 years after 2009B次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淎vatarB次元官网网址� (still the highest grossing film ever), a follow-up originally scheduled for release in 2014. Since then, that the sequels B次元官网网址� four films are now slated to launch in the next five years B次元官网网址� have sometimes seemed like blockbuster Godots that might forever wait in the wings.

Speaking from the New Zealand where B次元官网网址淭he Way of the WaterB次元官网网址� was being mixed and scored, producer Jon Landau promised the wait is, in fact, nearly over.

B次元官网网址淭his is finally happening,B次元官网网址� said Landau. B次元官网网址淭hose delays, as you would call them, were really about us creating a foundation for a saga of movies. It wasnB次元官网网址檛 about going: B次元官网网址楲etB次元官网网址檚 get one script right.B次元官网网址� It was about: B次元官网网址楲etB次元官网网址檚 get four scripts right.B次元官网网址橞次元官网网址�

Measuring the change in the movie industry is even harder when it comes to the span in between B次元官网网址淎vatarB次元官网网址� installments. When the first B次元官网网址淎vatarB次元官网网址� was in theaters, 3-D was being billed (again) as the future. Barack Obama was in the first year of his first term. Netflix was renting DVDs by mail.

B次元官网网址淎 lot has changed but a lot hasnB次元官网网址檛,B次元官网网址� says Landau. B次元官网网址淥ne of the things that has not changed is: Why do people turn to entertainment today? Just like they did when the first B次元官网网址楢vatarB次元官网网址� was released, they do it to escape, to escape the world in which we live.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址擩ake Coyle, The Associated Press