Ahh the art of sequels. A situation that back in the 1970s no one imagined sequels taking off as they did. A famous story is Paramount Pictures approved the sequel but didn't want to place a "part 2" number there. Because it had never been done and they worried how people would react.
Francis Ford Coppola convinced them to do this. Opening the gates of sequels with numbers attached. Soon we'd get parts 3 , 4....5 and more from films.
But then usually a weird thing would affect some films in a 3rd film. A reason I'm explaining it is this.....
The 1st 2 , Clerks films are classics. With the growing up of 2 men who in the 1st film are in their early 20s and by the 2nd are in their 30s. Both films are drastic different but work and the 2nd film is a good final touch to say good-bye for both. With them growing up u and running a business together.
Well the last number of years Kevin Smith wanted to return to Clerks and show them now as now early 50ish guys. Where would they be and how would they be now. Maybe it was best to not keep doing updates of films to show a Gen X crowd how were growing old now.
I saw clips and read the spoilers. Which I won't spoil here but its clear , you can't keep going home again. And really not after 16 years have passed where you make the characters have sad lives. Its like the ultimate kick in the nuts.
But Smith isn't the 1st guy to make a bad 3rd sequel. That trend has went on for a number of years and some films just have that happen.
Superman III is famous for just how bad it got and why it got bad. The Salkinds originally planned for Mr. Mxyzptlk and had Dudley Moore in mind for the imp from the 5th dimension. But the budget and the fact they saw Richard Pryor discuss Superman on Johnny Carson changed it all.
At the time Pryor was one of the biggest stars and his comedies were fun to watch. So they cast him and soon the film became....a mess. With a more silver age type aspect attached with how Superman is effected by a new modified kryptonite.
The 3rd sequel is where its said things began to really go bad for the Superman franchise in 1980s.
Its not just action films or comedies that suffer from this curse. Dramatic films like Godfather III suffered this fate after so many years and so do horror films.
The Halloween films in recent memory was a prime example of this curse. The last film ended with a wacky over board ending in a lot of ways to up the murder toll for Michael Myers. So the 3rd film was gonna likely top it.
Instead well....we saw what we got and what we received was not so good.
In all the 3rd sequel curse seems to hit some of these films. Others can escape it at times. Other film series seem able to avoid the "3rd part" deal.