As the summer blockbuster movie season winds down and film releases appear poised to resume a predictable cadence for the fall, will licensing experience an encore?

When film studios rushed to release movies on streaming services amid widespread theater closings during the pandemic, licensees were left in uncharted waters. Some licensees shipped products to retail without regard to release schedules, relying on a film’s evergreen appeal rather than the most recent in a series of sequels.

As a result, many licensees are sharpening their focus on evergreen properties and new streaming hits moving forward, although there have been exceptions. Several top box office films released this summer were tied to well-known franchises like Minions, Top Gun, and Jurassic Park, all of which generated licensed product sales. There are more highly anticipated sequels set to hit the big screen this fall, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Nov. 11) and Avatar 2 (Dec. 16).

And studios themselves, in some cases, are set to lessen reliance on straight-to-streaming or releasing films for streaming and theater at the same time. Newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery last week provided the first indication of that trend when it canceled both Batgirl and Scoob Holiday Haunt despite having spent a combined $130 million on them. It also changed course from 2021 when Warner Bros., then owned by AT&T, released 17 films on streaming day and date with their theatrical launch. HBO Max and Discovery+ had a combined 92 million subscribers as of June 30, with a goal of being profitable by 2024 with 130 million subscribers.

“We will fully embrace theatrical as we believe it creates interest and demand, provides a great marketing tailwind and generates word-of-mouth buzz as films transition to streaming and beyond,” said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. “A strategy has emerged that suggests the video business will be better off collapsing all windows into streaming, overpaying for and overinvesting in content, and offering it all at the same time for a low price. We don’t believe in this strategy.”

Streaming will be a “critical part” of Warner Bros. Discovery’s strategy going forward but only as part of a “diversified approach” to provide “consumer choice,” CFO Jean-Briac Perrette said.

And, not surprisingly, theatrical chains strongly support 45-day exclusive windows as a replacement for the once ironclad 90-day terms.

“We’re going to see [move schedules] that normalize back to prior levels, maybe even see a bit of an uptick,” said Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble, whose chain operates 531 theaters. “I do think it’s clear that a meaningful window is necessary to drive the full value that a theatrical release can provide to a film asset. But now there’s a little bit more flexibility in those circumstances where a movie doesn’t necessarily perform as expected out of the gates and can move to streaming.”

At the same time, theater chains are moving into merchandising as they seek to drive revenue outside of admissions and food and beverage sales. AMC Entertainment is launching its popcorn at retail this fall and bringing licensed merchandise tied to film to its theaters.

“You’re going to see increasing activity beginning in the second half of this year and the first half of next year on all fronts,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron.