September is usually where studios put the films they don't quite trust — too late for summer, too early for awards season. However, this year there's a sequel arriving 28 years after the original, a Colleen Hoover adaptation with a massive built-in readership, and a Resident Evil reboot all releasing inside four weeks. Light spoilers ahead on premises only, nothing past what trailers have shown. Swipe ahead and see what's actually worth the ticket.

Practical Magic 2

September 9, 2026

The headline release. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as Sally and Gillian Owens, 28 years after the film flopped in theaters and then became a genuine cultural fixture on cable and streaming. Sequels arriving nearly three decades late usually signal a cash grab; this one is arriving because an audience spent 28 years asking for it.

Photography: Warner Bros.

Verity

September 30, 2026

Colleen Hoover's psychological thriller is the most-anticipated book-to-screen adaptation of the season. The novel's power comes from an unreliable manuscript-within-a-manuscript structure, which is straightforward on a page and notoriously hard to stage on camera. This film was a big accomplishment for all involved.

Photography: Amazon MGM

Resident Evil

September 16, 2026

Another swing at the most-adapted video game franchise in film history. The series has never produced a critically respected entry despite consistent box office, which makes each reboot a test of whether the problem is the source material or every previous approach to it.

Photography: Columbia Pictures

Heart of the Beast

September 23, 2026

A survival story that leans on the increasingly reliable late-September slot for adult-audience thrillers — the window after families stop going to the movies weekly and before awards contenders arrive in force.

Photography: Paramount Pictures

Fall 2: Deadpoint

September 2026

The sequel to the tower-climbing survival thriller, trading the radio mast for rock. The original worked because its premise was a single unbearable idea executed cheaply and efficiently, which is a hard trick to run twice.

Photography: Lionsgate