Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/July 23 to 29, 2023

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 23 to 29, 2023)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Ollieisanerd, JSFarman and a helpful IP.

⭠ Last week's report → Next week's report

Barbenheimer had so much of an impact that it brought down the chatbot that seemingly wouldn't leave, even if the death of a famous singer ended up as the week's most viewed article.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Sinéad O'Connor	8,096,961	An Irish singer known for making a Prince song her own, a distinctive shaved look, and tearing a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live. O'Connor died last week at 56, a year after her 17-year-old son died by suicide. She left behind ten studio albums, three children and a grandson.
2	J. Robert Oppenheimer	6,073,436	The story of the physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb was told by Christopher Nolan in a movie that's exceptionally made but certainly didn't need to be three hours long, specially as it devotes so much time to neverending political discussions where the Congress tried to determine if Oppenheimer was a Communist and/or untrustworthy. Still, it won over reviewers and audiences, having quickly emerged as one of the year's highest-grossing movies, even if slightly overshadowed by another production that opened the same day...
3	Oppenheimer (film)	5,767,988
4	Barbie (film)	3,898,258	Pink, it's my new obsession Pink, it's not even a question... Mattel has been making Barbie cartoons for over 30 years, mostly unambitious animated films with a tendency to feature princesses and fashion. So what a surprise that the doll's live action adaptation instead takes a satirical comedy approach regarding the clashes of the doll's world with the real one (let's just say that at a certain point a "Depression Barbie" commercial shows up...) , that earned approval by reviewers and has been garnering a huge audience - which are easy to identify, as apparently many follow a dress code to wear pink for their screenings - with impressive $700 million earnings in just two weeks. The box office success also helped #3, not only because people saw fit to make a double feature between such contrasting movies, but there are reports that many Oppenheimer tickets were purchased by those who couldn't watch Barbie.
5	Cillian Murphy	1,384,434	The portrayer of #2. Many know him from Peaky Blinders, thrillers like 28 Days Later and Red Eye, and two previous collaborations with #3's director #11 (the Scarecrow from Batman Begins and its sequels, and the "mark" from Inception).
6	Lewis Strauss	1,224,066	The head of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission who decided to question #2's credentials in the Oppenheimer security hearing, played in #3 by Robert Downey Jr.
7	Margot Robbie	1,303,351	Life in plastic is fantastic and so is the work of #4's star and former Best Actress nominee, whose character in the film struggles with an existential crisis, and director, who received much praise for effectively discussing themes such as patriarchy and feminism in a film about Barbie dolls, which is yet another acclaimed creation of hers, following the semi autobiographical Lady Bird and an adaptation of Little Women, both of which received a Best Picture nomination. Would their latest work be worthy Kenough for next year's Oscars consideration too?
8	Greta Gerwig	1,144,227
9	Katherine Oppenheimer	1,050,908	The wife of #2 is being played in #3 by Emily Blunt (pictured), meaning that the German-American couple were portrayed by two actors from the British Isles, an Irishman and an Englishwoman.
10	Deaths in 2023	1,002,566	For #1: All the flowers that you planted mama In the back yard All died when you went away...
11	Christopher Nolan	988,643	#3's director, who has a very vocal fanbase. For what's worth, as much as the movie needed to be trimmed down this writer liked it more than Nolan's other World War II production.
12	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup	969,331	After the men's tournament was manageable for western hemisphere football fans to follow, the women's one is being held in Australia and New Zealand, downright making it difficult for those who can't stay up all night or wake up very early. This here writer only caught glimpses of his preferred team's first two games while his sleep got his best of him, and then the third frustrated as the squad's tendency to forget how to score goals sank against a huge underdog parking the bus, ensuring that on the 8th he'll be rooting for neighbors Colombia to deliver payback.
13	Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One	873,951	The Barbenheimer phenomenon is hindering the box office success of Tom Cruise's latest showcase of death defying feats, not helped by how #3 took IMAX screens away. Still, it's close to half a billion dollars worldwide. And everyone waiting for Part Two, due to next June, needs the studios to stop being greedy and listen to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes demands so production can wrap up.
14	Jean Tatlock	868,266	#2's love affair prior to marriage (#9), also blamed for igniting his leftist sympathies. #3 has her played by Florence Pugh (again, English as American) who provides both the R rating with sex scenes and a very sad moment once Tatlock kills herself.
15	Twitter	847,225	In the latest installment of "what the hell do you think you're doing, Elon?!" regarding the microblogging social network, the CEO decided to both drop the blue bird and downright the name "Twitter" for an X. Along with overall revolt, people were sure to make jokes such as how the site can now be confused with Xvideos.
16	Barbie	843,641	#4's source, super handsome Canadian actor portraying the role of Ken, and the doll's original inventor, whose ghost in the film is being played by Rhea Perlman.
17	Ryan Gosling	840,623
18	Ruth Handler	776,459
19	Sound of Freedom (film)	722,951	A surprisingly steady presence atop the American box office is this thriller that hasn't fallen off the top 5 after a month (currently fourth, behind #3, #4 and Haunted Mansion and directly above #13) while earning over 10 times its budget, even if having the questionable tactic of buying all tickets to a screening as if it was a religious movie.
20	Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki	705,492	Thanks to #3, the project where #2 led a group in the middle of New Mexico to develop the first functional nuclear weapons, the end result where two of those bombs exploded in Japan to make the nation surrender and finish World War II, and the celebrated scientist (seen with 'Oppie' himself to the left, and played in the movie by Tom Conti) whose famous "E=mc²" equation explains why "breaking" a core of uranium or plutonium creates an explosion that can level most of a city.
21	Manhattan Project	640,494
22	Albert Einstein	631,424
23	Utopia (Travis Scott album)	609,055	Despite attempts to cancel the rapper following the Astroworld Festival mass-casualty crowd crush in November 2021, his highly anticipated newest release caused Spotify to crash and within 24 hours became the platform's most streamed album in a single day of 2023.
24	Brian Harman	605,335	American golfer, who became the surprise winner of this year's Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, which makes Harman only the third left-handed Open champion.
25	Secret Invasion (miniseries)	603,413	ChatGPT finally left, while the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe production, a Disney+ show inspired by an eponymous storyline featuring Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury discovering the shapeshifting Skrulls having infiltrated the human society, managed to land an appearance on this list with its final episode.