Yup.
I can’t think of the last franchise movie I watched — maybe Jurassic Park, and that only through the 3rd film.
Sequels are sometimes justified but they are rarely as good as the lead movie. At this point, long experience has finally taught me that the decline curve is extremely steep.
I think it was Star Wars that broke the spell for me. The first Star Wars movie was a triumph, due mostly to its perfect control of tone. But even in the first trilogy, IMHO, #2 and #3 were lackluster. I soldiered on, however, fearful that I might miss something.
Until I met Jar Jar Binks. That cured me of the sequel disease.
That was a long time ago.
The new jurrasic world movie was bad. I felt like it was an ad for universal studios. Bad cgi and bad puppeteering.
LOTR is the best franchise movies.
Of course, they are from the Tolkein books and Jackson did quite a fine job bringing the plot vehicles and the characters to life.