Clearly, this is more than just a fan gripe, because the domestic box office numbers suggest that studios should really need to be paying attention (even in cases where money from foreign markets makes up for certain failings .
For example, while different titles have certainly carried different expectations, what has remained consistent between all of the franchise titles is that they have all come up short compared to predecessors.
Meanwhile, The Boss Baby was able to turn a profit, but the numbers for The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature and The Emoji Movie have been poor in their opening weeks.
Sadly, legitimate critical acclaim hasn’t even a solvent for this dim period, as Captain Underpants earned an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, but was out of the box office Top 10 by its fifth week of release.