Fall Movie Preview: The Box Office Is Jam-Packed with a Star-Studded Lineup

JLo is kissing, The Rock is smashing and Leo’s… aiming for another Oscar?

As the sun sets on summer the fall movie season is heating up!

Variety’s Chief Awards Editor Clayton Davis says one superstar after another is delivering a performance they hope will land them a VIP invite to Hollywood’s biggest celebration… the Academy Awards.

Buzz says Jennifer Lopez’s musical adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” offers her the part she was born to play, and Clayton tell us she “knocks it out of the park.”

He went on, “JLo is going for it. She wants an Oscar nomination… She's actually playing three roles here.”

Fall also means a “Wicked” return after the first film made over $730 million worldwide at the box office and snagged Oscar noms for both Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.

Davis put it this way: “Anticipation isn’t the right word to use… People need this film injected in their veins, and it has big shoes to fill.”

And could Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson find himself in the awards race?

He’s playing legendary UFC fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”

Clayton shared, “If you asked me 10 years ago, ‘Would the Oscar race ever include Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson…?’ I might have laughed at you a little bit — but here we are.”

Some Academy Award-winning A-listers are delivering their buzziest work, too!

Julia Roberts stars as a tortured professor opposite Andrew Garfield in “After the Hunt,” and Davis revealed “the early buzz is very promising.”

Leo DiCaprio is going through it in his action thriller “One Battle After Another,” and George Clooney plays the titular movie star in “Jay Kelly” alongside Adam Sandler as his manager.

Clayton says rumor has it this is Clooney’s “best role since ‘Up in the Air,’” and Adam “is said to give him the role that gets him invited to the Oscars.”

And what is a cozy fall day without a good murder mystery? The latest “Knives Out” movie, “Wake Up Dead Man,” finds Daniel Craig’s detective with another list of wacky suspects.

If sci-fi thrillers are more your speed, Hollywood has you covered. The new spin-off “Predator: Badlands” is on the way, and a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit “The Running Man”… but this time Glen Powell is on the run.

Video game fans won’t want to miss the adaption of “Mortal Kombat 2,” while horror audiences can look forward to Jordan Peele’s “Him.”