Is this the summer of the sequel?

Another weekend, another sequel hits the theaters. 

That's certainly true this Friday, with the release of the animated comedy "Despicable Me 3."

And last Friday, too, with the debut of "Transformers: The Last Knight."

This film marks the fifth installment in the billion dollar franchise about fighting alien robots that turn into automobiles. And don't let the "last" part fool you – filmmakers announced a 2019 sequel to "The Last Knight" years ago.

There isn't actually going to be a new sequel opening each weekend this summer.

OK, there are arguably two weekends when a new sequel isn't hitting the silver screens from May to July. (And there are certainly franchise films still playing in theaters a dozen times daily on those weekends.) 

One of those weekends, by the way, belonged to "Baywatch," a comedy that was essentially a big screen sequel to a television show.  

In August, two more sequels are scheduled for release, too. 

All in all, there are 16 sequels or franchise films with a summer release this year. That's up two films from last year.

We are counting both traditional sequels like "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" and installments in an established franchise, like Marvel's "Ant-Man." 

In 2015, 11 of those types of films hit the theaters those months, with 10 in 2014. 

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So there isn't a huge increase this year, but it certainly feels like a summer of sequels, right? 

Movie writer Edwin Arnaudin describes the feeling as "a cumulative weight," he said. 

"Superhero movies coming back in fashion spawned more and more sequels," Arnaudin said. "Once in a while, we will see a new movie ... but those are also getting sequels. It's just becoming the norm now." 

There's really no mystery behind why. If a movie makes a lot of money, Hollywood is going to make another one. Why change the formula if that answer keeps adding up to a billion dollars or so at the box office?

Just look at the top 10 movies at the domestic box office this year so far. "Beauty and the Beast" – a remake of a beloved Disney animated classic – reigns, garnering more than $500 million. All but two of the movies rounding out that list are sequels or franchise films. ("Get Out" and "Boss Baby" are the exceptions.)

Part of the reason for many of the sequel successes this year?

Well, many of these are good films, standing on their own quality wise, said Brian Truitt, entertainment writer for USA Today.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vo1. 2" kicked off the summer film season May 5. It's currently the second highest grossing film of the year, with an 81 percent approval on review aggregate site, RottenTomatoes.com.

"Logan" sits at 93 percent approval on that site and at No. 4 in that biggest blockbuster list. That's just slightly above the third highest grossing film, "Wonder Woman," at 92 percent approval. 

Both "Logan" and "Wonder Woman" are both sort-of sequels in the larger cinematic worlds based on Marvel and D.C. Comics characters. And solidly in "Hollywood's sweet spot," said Truitt. 

"It's original, but not really," he said. "It's a continuation of something else, people know who the characters are and it's tied to something beloved." 

Truitt calls it a hybrid, actually, of original and sequel.

Noel Murray, a pop culture writer for the likes of Rolling Stone and The New York Times, sees something else happening this summer. 

Four or five years ago, studios announced franchise, tentpole projects modeled off the success of the Marvel movies centered on the Avengers characters. (A tentpole project is a film that a studio believes will support the overall financial performance of the organization.)

Producers aimed to "create something that will continue to generate movies and interest for a decade of more, he said.

"This summer, you see the chickens coming home to roost," Murray said, including "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" and "The Mummy" (part of this Dark Universe monsters series from DC Comics).

Instead of just releasing a movie, the studios aimed to launch an entire series. "They have locked themselves into franchises and locked them into them years ago," Murray said. 

And producers are probably hoping they didn't throw away those keys: "King Arthur" and "The Mummy" both flopped stateside. 

"I think the lesson from this summer is that deciding three or four years in advance what an audience is going to want for the next years is foolish because people are fickle," Murray said.

He thinks that this summer "may be a turning point."

The established franchises like Marvel and Star Wars "will continue no trouble," he said.

"They have a huge fan base that's preexisting and they are flashy enough that they can attract new people who are young," Murray said. "I think we might see a diminishing of this attempt to create out of whole cloth a new five-film or six-film series."

But sequels? Those aren't going to stop, he said.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Think "The Godfather Part II" or "The Dark Knight."

It's been a part of Hollywood since the beginning, after all. There was even a sequel to 1927's groundbreaking "The Jazz Singer," the first full-length film with sound. 

Remaining summer sequel schedule

June 30: Despicable Me 3

July 7: Spider-Man: Homecoming

July 14: War for the Planet of the Apes

July 28: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power

Aug. 11: Annabelle: Creation; The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature