A fall movie season, like everything else, in flux IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The fall movie season — usually a reliable rhythm and cozy autumn comfort — is this year, like much of the past 18 months, a little disorienting. On the way are movies once planned to open as far back as April 2020, like “No Time to Die,” summer movies that hope to find better conditions in autumn, and films that have been shot and edited during the pandemic.

What has coalesced is a movie mishmash — something much more robust than last fall’s cobbled together, mostly virtual fall movie season — a season that stretched all the way to the Oscars in April. But the recent rise in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant has added new uncertainty to a time Hollywood had once hoped would be nearing normality.

The unpredictability of the conditions is universally shared but acutely felt at studios like Sony that even through the pandemic have remained largely committed to exclusive theatrical releases. While Disney (with Disney+) and Warner Bros. (with HBO Max) have sought to hedge their bets and boost subscribers to their streaming services with dayand-date releases in 2021, Sony, Universal, Paramount and MGM (home to Bond) — with various windowing strategies — have mostly stuck to theater-first plans.

In all the movies coming this fall — among them “The Last Duel” (Oct. 15), “Dune” (Oct. 22), “Eternals” (Nov. 5), “House of Gucci” (Nov. 24) —nothing may be quite as tense as the ever-unfolding drama around old-fashioned, butts-in-the-seats moviegoing. Citing the delta-driven surge, Paramount has uprooted from the season, booting “Top Gun: Maverick” to next year. But on the heels of some promising box-office performances, many of the fall’s top movies and leading Oscar hopefuls are only doubling down on theatrical, and the cultural impact that comes with it. Even if it’s a gamble.

After building confidence in moviegoing over the summer, delta has sapped some of Hollywood’s momentum. The National Research Group had recorded more than 80% of moviegoers were comfortable going to theaters in July. But that number dipped to 67% last month.

Yet summer’s last big movie, Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” gave the fall a major lift with an estimated $90 million in ticket sales over the four-day Labor Day weekend — one of the best performances of the pandemic. Notably, it was only playing in theaters.

Even before all the numbers were in, Sony moved up the release of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” the sequel to its $856 million superhero hit, by two weeks to Oct. 1. It kicks off Sony’s slate including Jason Reitman’s “Ghostbusters:

Afterlife” (Nov. 19), Denzel Washington’s “A Journal for Jordan” (Dec. 10) and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (Dec. 17).

No studio is betting quite as big on movie theaters this fall as Sony. The studio lacks a major streaming platform but has signed lucrative pacts with Netflix and Disney to stream films after theatrical release. Discussing the disappointing results of day-and-date movies like Warner Bros.’ “The Suicide Squad” versus a theater-first hit like Disney’s “Free Guy.”

That debate — what movies open where and when — is sure to remain unsettled in the coming months, and probably well beyond. Warner Bros. has pledged to return to exclusive theatrical releases, for 45 days, next year. But little this fall — including the movie calendar — is a sure thing.

Associated Press Promotional art for movies that hope to find better conditions in autumn and films that have been shot and edited during the pandemic.