I don't know, maybe it just wasn't appealing to audiences, from what I saw they put some effort into marketing it. And I wonder if Ritchson's recent controversial posts on social media affected numbers a bit.
Deadpool and Woverine will have bigger OW, but this one will have better legs, at least that's how I feel at this point, they are gonna be close. So essentially this year is a battle for the biggest R rated movie ever (not adjusting to inflation), it will be interesting.
I haven't seen many people praising first half, I thought second half was much better, outside of cool opening scene first act has frankenstein monster editing, just complete mess.
Judging by those descriptions Ridley completely lost his mind, he didn't even have to resurrect Maximus like he planned to make a crazy and unnecessary sequel, this time with 310 mln price tag.