The audience for the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, based on the popular kids’ novels by Jeff Kinney, splits into two distinct demographic pie slices. One is middle-school boys. The other is parents of middle-school boys.

Both groups — but probably the second more than the first — will be thrilled to know that the latest installment, subtitled “Dog Days” is the best, funniest and least obnoxious of the three films so far. This time, the embattled Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) is facing the doldrums, and this time, he is not a complete jerk to his best friend Rowley (Robert Capron). Nor is Greg’s older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) a complete jerk to Greg. In this round of Heffley-centered shenanigans, characters are only partial jerks to one another; even better, at key junctures in the plot they’re actually nice to each other. Real emotions get expressed, real family harmony emerges. Shocking.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” opens on Greg’s final days of seventh grade, and he’s not happy. As he explains to the audience, “summer vacation is basically a three-month guilt trip” — a season when grownups are barking at him to go outside when all he wants to do is hole up in the dark with video games.

Greg’s dreams of slug-dom are dashed when his dad (Steve Zahn, who does some positively nuanced acting) guts all the TV cables and then insists on hauling him out for father-son activities. Greg’s only recourse is to accompany Rowley to the country club every day and then lie to his parents about getting a job there. Needless to say, this is just the beginning of the young man’s minor misadventures, which include a trip to a theme park, a call to 911 and a camping expedition that goes wrong.

Many scenes are amusing, particularly those that humanize and/or humiliate and/or dump trash on Rodrick. But the characters have grown since the first film. Parents, rest assured: Greg will no longer bug the snot out of you. The film won’t, either.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" is rated PG and is showing at College 9, UEC Theater 12, Roxy, Super 322 Drive-in and Midway Drive-in.