FALL SNEAKS : Odds and (Potential) Monsters : Offbeat and adult-oriented fare tends to flourish after the summer marketing cools off--or so the studios hope.

Vacation’s over. As the leaves turn and kids go back to school, movie studios get serious, because, among other things, fall also is the preseason for awards season.

Though big-budget, wide-appeal Hollywood fare is still hitting theaters in the months of September, October and early November, fall movies are perceived as more adult in their sensibility. Offbeat, independent, art-house, foreign and prestige films that don’t want to get lost in the Christmas movie rush tend to find a home during the fall, which for the Fall Sneaks issue of Sunday Calendar is defined this year as today through Nov. 5.

“As a moviegoer, I am breathing a sigh of relief that there will be good movies again” come fall, says Mark Gill, president of Miramax L.A.

Gill says he believes fall movies are more eclectic because “everybody gets serious once they get off the beach. It is true in the book world. There is what’s known as the summer book, which is fairly pulpy and not too substantial. I think in part it is generated by the fact that if people go on vacation in the summer, in the fall they want to go see their friends and they like not to look stupid. They want to see the latest smart movie. My social life certainly improves.”

Ziggy Kozlowski of Block-Korenbrot, a Los Angeles-based publicity firm that handles Sony Classics and several other independent and art-house films, opines that people start spending more time at home during the fall and “get more serious and thoughtful. I think the movies sort of reflect that. There are specialized movies and art movies that opened during the summer like ‘My Life So Far’ and ‘Run Lola Run,’ but they are just fun art-house movies. But come the fall and Christmas, it is the serious foreign films and the serious art films. I don’t want to make it [seem] too down, but I think the more thoughtful things tend to come out in the fall.”

“People tend to feel that more serious films finally open better in the fall,” says Mark Urman, co-president of Lions Gate Films, which chose last fall to open its Oscar winner, “Gods and Monsters.” “Everything is a little bit sober, a little less frivolous and people’s mind-sets are a bit more, I don’t know, geared to making the 10-best lists and check them twice and getting ready for Oscars and things like that.”

Plus, the kids are back in school. “The available audience you have in the summer period, a good portion of that is no longer available at least during the week,” says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks movie ticket sales.

“That creates a whole new atmosphere in the box office and in perception of moviegoers. The whole mood sort of changes to older audiences, potential Oscar nominees.”

What follows is a rough guide to the ABCs of fall films:

THE ADULT MOVIE: Though such “summer” movies as “Rush Hour” took in more than $100 million each at the box office last fall, most of the action films, romances and comedies released during those months are more adult-oriented, with stars appealing to an older crowd.

Three years ago, for example, “The First Wives Club,” starring fiftysomethings Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, hit it big in the fall.

Robin Williams is becoming a popular staple during the fall. Last October, his maudlin melodrama “What Dreams May Come” brought in $15.8 million its opening weekend. Later this month, his Holocaust drama, “Jakob the Liar,” hits theaters.

Fall titles from recent years include “Leaving Las Vegas,” “L.A. Confidential,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Interview With the Vampire,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Get Shorty,” “Devil’s Advocate,” “Sleepers,” “Seven Years in Tibet,” “Boogie Nights,” “Living Out Loud” and ‘Pleasantville.”

The highest-grossing fall film in history was a little Australian picture called “Crocodile Dundee,” which was released in September 1986 and went on to garner $175 million.

Among the big adult-themed movies this fall are “Random Hearts,” with Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas, and “The Insider,” starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

“Fall can be a place where a film can get the opportunity to have a little more breathing room,” says Dergarabedian. “It is sort of in between a holiday picture and in between a summer picture. I think sometimes it can afford a film a nice little space to find an audience.”

A case in point was last year’s acclaimed weepie “One True Thing,” with Meryl Streep. “I don’t want to put that out in the summer and probably not out in the holiday,” he says. “So fall is an opportunity, it is not a negative. It can be a place where you can get in there with a small film and do well. Likewise, if you put a big film out there, it can catch on too.”

One big film that made good in the fall was 1992’s “The Last of the Mohicans.” Originally scheduled for a summer release, Fox moved the Daniel Day-Lewis period action film to mid-September and the film became a big hit, grossing nearly $11 million in what at the time was considered a solid opening weekend.

But the bottom line is, says Dergarabedian, “it really comes down to the product. I mean, the time of year is important, but it is becoming more of a year-round business. You can have a hit any time of year, and you can have any genre be a hit, any time of the year.”

With the broad-based success last year of “Rush Hour,” says Dergarabedian, “it sort of changes the rules a little bit. I think the difference is that you are going to see some studios which were set to open their films during the summer, taking a chance on it for fall.”

Opening a serious, high-profile adult film in the fall doesn’t necessarily equate success. Last year’s acclaimed “Beloved,” starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, sank like a stone at the box office.

“I think movies ultimately fail in that time period just like in the summer if there isn’t a good word of mouth,” says Dergarabedian. “It doesn’t matter when it opened.”

In fact, he says, word of mouth is even more critical in the fall. “You tend to see more low-key marketing campaigns in the fall. It is important that the film be good more than anything else because you are not going to put that marketing push necessarily behind a film in the fall.”

SPECIAL HANDLING: “You have some really offbeat films [in the fall],” says Dergarabedian, because distributors feel “they have a chance to break out. If it was released in the middle of the summer, it would have been lost in the shuffle.” Last year, Disney attempted to nurture its unusual drama, “Simon Birch,” with a slow release pattern. That film failed to find much of an audience, but this year Disney hopes it will give a platform release to its G-rated David Lynch drama, “The Straight Story,” starring 79-year-old Richard Farnsworth.

Among the other quirky films set for the fall is Lawrence Kasdan’s latest, “Mumford”--16 years ago, Kasdan scored in the fall with “The Big Chill”--and the Bruce Willis comedy “Breakfast of Champions.”

Films with controversial, sometimes disturbing subject matter emerge in the fall like “American History X,” “Happiness” and “Seven.” This fall, “Fight Club,” with Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, falls into this category.

PRESTIGE PICTURES: Think Merchant Ivory (“Remains of the Day”). Think lush period pieces (“Wings of the Dove,” “The Age of Innocence”). Think foreign language (“Life Is Beautiful). Think potential Oscar winners (“Elizabeth,” “The Piano”).

Among the prestige movies for the fall are Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead,” with Nicolas Cage; “Mansfield Park,” based on the book by Jane Austen; and from Wes Craven, of all people, “Music of the Heart,” starring Meryl Streep.

Because studios are hoping a lot of these films will win critics’ awards and Oscars, the studios and distributors market them with kid gloves. Last year, for example, Miramax had adopted a very slow release pattern for “Life Is Beautiful,” which went on to win three Oscars, including best actor and best foreign-language film.

Lions Gate’s “Gods and Monsters” opened in early November a year ago. “It rolled out rather slowly,” says Urman. “It didn’t expand in any meaningful way until Thanksgiving and was still expanding in December, so it could be fortified and still a viable film in the event it was lucky enough to get a shot in the arm in February” with Oscar nominations.

Still, this limited release pattern hasn’t always worked with the so-called prestige product. “Washington Square,” based on the Henry James classic, fizzled in limited release. “They test the waters a little bit,” explains Dergarabedian. “They can cut their losses if they are not getting the per-screen average they are looking for.”

REISSUES: Though high-profile reissues such as “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz” generally take place during the summer, re-releases have tended to find more of an audience during the fall, including “Vertigo,” “The Big Chill” and “Giant.” This season, the Talking Heads’ concert film “Stop Making Sense” and the erotic hoot “Caligula” are making their way back to theaters.

DOGS: Although studios don’t like to admit to it, there are plenty of pre-Thanksgiving turkeys that are released during the fall. Who can forget such duds as as “Fair Game,” “Playing God,” “A Life Less Ordinary,” “Dear God,” “Mad City,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “Larger Than Life,” “Jade,” “Strange Days” and “Mallrats”?