This makes sense to me. Critics reviews a movie professionally while audience emotionally. Plus TLJ's CS is A, which means the audience agree with the critics.
no one cares about actuals when nothing changed. This will clearly make headline when Mal 2 ends up on top. Don't underestimate disney's strategy on lowballing Sunday estimates.
You know there is ad and propagation cost too right? movies like Mal2 will cost a fortune on that too. DVD and home entertainment income will have to cover that. Mal2 doesn't have to have MCU level success but it seems BO income can't even cover its prod budget which means it's a flop, not just underperforming.