Depending on what time of day you ask, sequels are either the scourge of Hollywood storytelling or the best thing since sliced bread. Following the most recent weekend box office, there will likely be a chorus more in line with the former than the latter, but as usual, the narrative lessons are a bit more complicated.

Men In Black: International is the fourth instalment of the MIB franchise, and the first without original stars Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones. It is set in the same continuity, however, rendering it a sequel as opposed to a reboot. But fans of the original sci-fi series perhaps weren’t ready for one. MIB: International opened to a series low. It took in $28 million over the weekend, despite the presence of major stars in the form of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, fresh off their successful pairing in Thor: Ragnarok.

MIB: International's lacklustre reception at the box office speaks to a disconnect between awareness and enthusiasm. There were no doubt plenty of market research reports that showed Men In Black to have a high amount of awareness amongst moviegoers, but deeper research would've indicated that goodwill for the overall narrative had already worn down over the course of the second and third film in the franchise.

You'd struggle to find many moviegoers excited about the prospect of more Men In Black films, especially considering how influential the first one was. Its success more or less created a new sub-genre of sassy special effects, sci-fi/fantasy comedies—think: Evolution and RIPD—so it feels like we've already had a large number of unofficial sequels.

If Men In Black: International had been able to spin something narratively innovative—like the abandoned idea to combine the series with the 21 Jump St franchise for a movie called MIB 23—maybe audiences would've responded. But the film’s indifferent reception is an important lesson on  IP leading over storytelling.

Another sequel that you didn't necessarily hear many people clamoring for opened over the weekend. Shaft, the third film to be released with that title in what is techincally now a five film franchise, opened to a somewhat muted response. The original 1971 Shaft inspired two sequels of its own (Shaft's Big Score! and Shaft In Africa). Then, Samuel L. Jackson joined the series as the original Shaft's nephew in 2000's Shaft, to which this film is a direct follow-up. It also brings in a third generation Shaft in the form of Jessie T. Usher's JJ, Jackson's character's son.

The MCU equivalent of baaaaad mother-shut your mouth, the Shaft Shared Universe is an intruiging narrative proposition. The current instalment even had script contributions from hot writer Kenya Barris (Black-Ish, Girls Trip, Coming 2 America), who has something of a golden touch. Yet audiences didn't show up in droves for Shaft 5, with the film only earning $8 million at the weekend box office.

Maybe this one's on marketing.

Dark Phoenix continued to flame out (sorry) in its second weekend, dropping 74% from its dismal opening to earn only $9 million. There have been a lot of think pieces about how badly handled the narrative was, to the extent that lessons might actually be learned from this. Hey, a guy can dream.

And you have to hand to it to the film's writer/director Simon Kinberg, who took responsiblity for the film's failure in an interview last week. It's incredibly rare to see a director of a film of that size even acknowledge the failure of such a gargantuan enterprise, let alone take the blame.