JW’s run was much more surprising but not really more impressive at all. JP and Lost World both showed the potential was there for a JP movie to have a record breaking opening weekend, it wasn’t unprecedented at all.
I think there’s a difference between a run being surprising and a run being impressive. For example, if TLJ had been any other movie people would go nuts at how massive it actually is, but because it’s the sequel to the TFA it’s a disappointment. It’s surprising in the opposite direction but the numbers it’s pulling are still highly impressive. It doesn’t matter what movie it is, it’s hard for me to see a movie as a disappointment if it pulls anything around or over 400m.
I’ll be pretty annoyed if IW doesn’t do 500m+ numbers or sub-Ultron or something and people call it a disappointment.
I think, ultimately, expectations are overall null when analyzing how well a movie did. If I’m a studio, I’ll look at the total gross, budget and then maybe the legs (maybe it did great but there’s evidence I might need quality control to keep the high numbers up). A 600m+ movie is exceptional, and I’d always pick to have a movie like TLJ over a suprising hit like American Sniper if I want to maximize profits for my studio.