LOS ANGELES • The Kingsman franchise looks to have some box-office legs, but the latest Lego movie's takings will frighten its backers.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a sequel to the quirky 2015 action comedy Kingsman: The Secret Service, collected about US$39 million (S$53 million) at 4,003 theatres in North America.

Still, most box-office analysts had expected a bit more for a heavily marketed film that cost US$104 million to produce.

The Secret Service took in US$36.2 million over its first three days in 2015.

The upshot: The Golden Circle did fine, but the Kingsman series does not appear to have the makings of a blockbuster domestic franchise.

The second chapter also received weaker reviews, with critics complaining about an overstuffed plot and a 21/2-hour running time.

The Lego Ninjago Movie arrived in third place with US$21.2 million in ticket sales - sharply less than pundits had predicted.

The future of the Lego movie franchise is now a serious question. The first Lego film arrived to a whopping US$69 million in ticket sales in 2014. A Batman-themed follow-up had US$53 million earlier this year.

The continuing free-fall does not bode well for The Lego Movie 2, scheduled for release in 2019.

Second place for the weekend went to It, which collected about US$30 million for an astounding three-week domestic total of US$266.3 million.

NYTIMES