It’s a tale of two sequels in which both underperformed. So maybe it should start like this: It was the most lackluster of times, it was the most lackluster of times.

Universal’s “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and “Dark Phoenix,” an “X-Men” sequel from Fox, led ticket sales at the box office this weekend. But both fell short of expectations.

“The Secret Life of Pets 2” took the No. 1 spot, selling roughly $47.1 million in tickets Friday through Sunday. That was enough to make it the best-attended movie in America this weekend, but it was well under half the roughly $104.4 million that the original “Secret Life of Pets” made domestically during its first weekend in 2016.

The original movie paired a starry ensemble of voice actors (Kevin Hart and Lake Bell among them) with cute animated animals and a serious marketing push. That worked well for Universal and Illumination, the studio also behind the “Despicable Me” series, who turned that combination into a winner at the box office.