Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/July 19 to 25, 2015
Top 25 Report: Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 19 to 25, 2015)
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Summary: Months ago, when four India-related topics appeared in the top 25, I predicted that the Report would eventually become a masala of American and Indian flavours. However, over time my prediction failed to materialise, as Indian topics gradually drifted out of the top list. Well, they're back now, and for the first time since this list began, have claimed five slots in the top 25, including the top two. Another sudden returnee from seeming oblivion is Reddit, which had four topics in the top 25 for the first time in years. In other news, the annual bloodbath that is the American summer blockbuster season continued to wage its wars on our pages this week, with five of the top ten films at the US box office making the list in some way.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 19 to 25, 2015, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Bajrangi Bhaijaan 1,510,842 Bollywood's Muslim-targeted counterprogramming to the raging box office tsunami of Baahubali: The Beginning, starring self-described Hindu-Muslim superstar Salman Khan (pictured) and opening on Eid weekend, has managed to make Rs 2 billion ($31.2 million) in its first nine days, and earned support from legends like Shekhar Kapur. It is the first Bollywood film to cross the 2 billion mark this year. But Khan's tweets in apparent support of Bombay bomber Yakub Memon have led to posters for the film being defaced in some areas. 2 Baahubali: The Beginning 1,191,758 At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the Telugu actor Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days and in just two weeks has already crossed the Rs 4 billion ($62 million) mark. 3 Ant-Man (film) 1,002,486 Other than Guardians of the Galaxy, this was always going to be Marvel Studios's biggest gamble, and signs did not augur well after writer-director Edgar Wright abandoned the project when denied total creative control. And yet, while it is hardly the box-office miracle that Guardians was, it has so far outperformed Thor, another questionably saleable debut property. 4 Memphis Pyramid 839,800 As noted in a Reddit thread this week, this Bass Pro Shops megastore is the tenth largest pyramid in the world, slightly behind the Bent Pyramid.. 5 Donald Trump 661,692 The bombastic real estate developer and media personality continues his improbable rise to the top of Republican politics, much to the horror of the Republican establishment, who have been cheering for his sudden, swift downfall for weeks. But it appears nothing, not doxxing one of his opponents on live television, not insulting John McCain's war record, can dent his popularity in the run up to the controversial Fox News Republican debate, inclusion for which will be decided according to fairly meaningless national poll numbers. 6 Tutankhamun 646,844 The turbulent, short life of the boy king son of the heretic ruler Akhenaten was the subject of a miniseries on Spike TV this week, which saw ratings for the usually male-skewing network double. 7 Tsar Bomba 602,258 The largest single explosion ever detonated by mankind (not the image at left, which is free to use) had a mushroom cloud seven times higher than Mount Everest and rattled windows 900 km away, as learned in a a Reddit thread this week. 8 Battleground (2015) 592,797 The WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime was performed at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. 9 Deaths in 2015 535,850 The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died. 10 Death of Sandra Bland 524,160 The death in police custody of this 28-year-old African American woman has been ruled a suicide, though the protests that greeted the ruling have highlighted its significance against a mounting backdrop of police violence against African Americans in recent months. 11 Chanel West Coast 480,533 No, not the California subdivision of a multinational fashion company, but a white woman rapper who became the subject of a rather intrusive internet meme that suggested she was in fact the Boy Meets World star Lee Norris after a sex change. This despite the fact that Norris had only recently reprised his Boy Meets World role on the sequel series Girl Meets World. 12 Amy Schumer 458,268 The raunchy comedienne is having a good July; with her hit TV series Inside Amy Schumer securing a fourth season after ending on the 7th, and her hit movie Trainwreck premiering on the 16th, all she needs is a book and she'll be lord of all media before anyone notices. 13 Jurassic World 449,238 In this era of duelling gargantuas, when Hollywood risks $200 million budgets on a whim and triple-digit opening weekends are a seasonal event, the financial achievements of the first Jurassic Park can seem somewhat pallid. And yet, it was for a time the most successful film ever made, and more importantly, formed the prototype for the modern blockbuster; massive, frontloaded opening weekend, brushfire earnings and supercharged ancillaries. And now, 14 years after the last instalment and 22 years after the first, Jurassic World has reclaimed its ancestor's box office throne as the highest-grossing film of all time... not directed by James Cameron (still, third place is impressive!). 14 Ashley Madison 441,448 No, not the wish list of female baby names for an upwardly mobile New York couple circa 1987, but a dating site for cheaters. Yes, we now live in a world in which infidelity itself is an industry, rather than merely sex. Needless to say, such a business model requires fairly strict information security, but no one, least of all the firm's customer base, appeared to realise that cyberspace doesn't actually have walls, and that there is no countermeasure that a good enough hacker can't bring down. Which is exactly what happened this week when a hacker group called "The Impact Team" grew so incensed by the firm's hoarding and retention of their consumers' personal information that they threatened to publish said information online if the site did not shut down. Um, yeah; that makes sense. Anyway, the company now claims to have repaired the damage and that its customers can freely practice immorality without fear of criminality. 15 Harshaali Malhotra 440,403 This Indian child actress is winning praise for her début film performance in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (see #1), but even if she wasn't, she could still win prizes in "adorable". 16 Zach Johnson 437,578 This week the golfer became one of only six (including Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) to win majors at both St Andrews and Augusta when he won the 2015 Open Championship. 17 Johnny Depp 417,080 The superstar became a topic for Reddit this week when a user learned that he and his costars Colin Farrell and Jude Law donated their earnings from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, for which they had replaced star Heath Ledger after his tragic death, to Ledger's daughter Matilda. 18 Oliver Sipple 400,699 As learned in a Reddit thread this week, this decorated US Marine who saved the life of President Gerald Ford was outed as gay against his wishes by Harvey Milk in the hope that it would lead to wider acceptance of homosexuality. Instead, the resultant media storm and the breaking with his family led to his declining mental and physical health, until he died in 1989 at the age of 47. President Ford did not attend his funeral. 19 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup 376,630 The North American equivalent of the Copa América, the UEFA European Championship or the Africa Cup of Nations held its final in the United States on July 26. 20 List of Bollywood films of 2015 376,382 Not as frequent a guest on this list as it once was, but no doubt pushed up by the surge in Indian-related topics this week. 21 Suicide Squad (film) 374,833 DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the upcoming DC Cinematic Universe. Last week, at San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros released the film's first trailer, which, from the Wikipedia views, seems to have gotten the fans more excited than the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie. 22 Caitlyn Jenner 356,863 I Am Cait, the reality television series starring the former track and field star, honorary Kardashian, and recently transitioned woman, premiered on the E! network on July 26. 23 List of highest-grossing Bollywood films 355,215 With the barnstorming performances of Baahubali: The Beginning and Bajrangi Bhaijaan making national news in India, people are interested to know how they stack up against the recent crop of record breakers. 24 Pixels (2015 film) 352,685 Some movies are critic-proof; no matter how reviled they may be in the press, audiences will flock to them in the same way they rush to the junk food aisle at the supermarket. The films of Adam Sandler were once among the most critic-proof on the market, but this wannabe blockbuster (about an invasion of Earth by 1980s video games) may be bucking that trend. Sony Pictures' only major release this year, it has already been labelled a disaster by its competition, particularly Disney, whose Ant-Man, already in its second week, could well fend it off the top spot at the box office this weekend. 25 Cara Delevingne 345,904 The British model-turned-actress is getting press both for her role as Enchantress in the upcoming Suicide Squad, and also for her role in the film adaptation of Paper Towns, released this week.
Exclusions
[edit]- This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we also exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (~2% or less) or almost all mobile views (~95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
- Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.