Do Bad Sequels Diminish Good Originals?

I know that in one sense this is a silly question, but I seriously wonder. The original Godzilla was a sober, scary film, but by the mid-70's, the series had become so campy that Godzilla was considered strictly kiddie fodder. The first Smokey and the Bandit was a fun ride, but the sequels were so awful that I was seriously embarrassed to admit I'd ever liked the first one. I know that nobody seems to think that the original King Kong's reputation was damaged by Son of Kong, but the recent Star Wars prequels do seem to have pointed up and magnified the storytelling flaws in the original trilogy.

So I'm seriously asking. Do bad sequels diminish good originals? If Michael Bay or Joel Schumacher released a crappy sequel to Citizen Kane next year, could that affect people's opinions of the original?