Time made sure Godfather III would never get the ratings of the first 2

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2017)

The Godfather part III as a stand alone movie was great. I enjoyed it immensely. Not as great as the first two movies but definitely very watchable and a fitting ending to the trilogy.
One reason why it's ratings are not as high as the first two is in my opinion due to the 16 year gap between the making of the first two movies and this one. That's a generation skip. You can see the same ratings decline with the Star Wars movies.
Movie audiences crave something new all the time and movie studios try to make what they believe the audience want. You can plainly see the cycle of the genres. Right now we're in the middle of super hero cycle, but when was the last time you saw a Western blockbuster? In my opinion it hasn't been since 1992 with Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.
If Godfather III was made a few years after the first two while the buzz of the first two was still strong and in the zeitgeist of the populace I believe it would be scoring much higher in IMDb as it does now.