Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/July 30 to August 5, 2023

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 30 to August 5, 2023)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Marinette2356, and Ollieisanerd.

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

Again a celebrity death is the top spot as Barbenheimer and other movies have a strong presence.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Paul Reubens	3,376,260	American actor and comedian, best known for creating the character Pee-wee Herman (#11). Originally not made specifically for children, Reubens became more selective in what Pee-wee should be associated with in the mid-1980s. Reubens received a lot of negative media attention following his arrest in 1991 for indecent exposure at an adult film theater, which stalled future projects as Pee-wee for some time. The last appearance of Pee-wee was for a Netflix film in 2016, before Reubens' death this week of cancer at age 70.
2	Oppenheimer (film)	2,974,625	The story of the 'father of the atomic bomb' reminded this writer of The Wolf of Wall Street, which peaked two hours in and still had one more hour to go, with the caveat that after Trinity exploded the remaining running time was mostly talking that can make one quote Thanos. In any case, Oppenheimer already surpassed John Wick: Chapter 4 as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of the year with $550 million, a testament to both its artistic merits and the pull brought by director Christopher Nolan (#22).
3	J. Robert Oppenheimer	2,874,353
4	Angus Cloud	2,430,156	Last week, the world mourned the death of #8, who passed away a year after her son's suicide. This week, this Euphoria star died at age 25 only a week after his father's funeral.
5	Barbie (film)	2,212,618	While this article may not gather as many views as #2, the film certainly outdid it in box office, surpassing $1 billion (or should I say "Barbillion") worldwide in just three weeks. It is the second film of 2023 to hit the mark, after The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the first film directed solely by a woman (#25) to achieve it. Turns out using all that pink paint paid off in the end.
6	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup	1,417,940	Women's football hit the Land Down Under and Middle-Earth, and perceived favorites are falling left and right. For all the disappointment in seeing his favorite team get eliminated by a nation that only creates runners (all the more reason to support neighbors Colombia!), this here writer is relieved that least the U.S. team won't win again and there will be a new champion.
7	Altina Schinasi	1,293,601	This renowned sculptor and designer, known for inventing the cat-eye glasses, received a pretty cat eye-catching Google Doodle, celebrating her 116th birthday.
8	Sinéad O'Connor	1,239,682	She never had a hit as big as a Prince cover, or lived down the controversy of her improptu protest against the Catholic Church. But this Irish singer who died at 56 certainly left an indelible mark in culture, to the point that we can say that Nothing Compares 2 U.
9	LK-99	1,156,058	A room-temperature superconductor is a dream of physicists and engineers - superconductivity, i.e. a material having low electrical resistance to the point of creating strong magnetic fields, has only been witnessed in really cold temperatures - with potential for energy distribution, computing, and even transport in making maglevs cheaper. This material researched by two Koreans (Lee and Kim, who started looking onto it in 1999, hence LK-99) was claimed to show potential for it, but doubts have been raised and other independent research teams are trying to replicate the results.
10	Deaths in 2023	1,008,413	Hey Lord, You know I'm fighting, Hey Lord, You know I'll find it, I don't know when or how today, Hey Lord, I'm on my way...
11	Pee-wee Herman	978,447	#1 first developed this comedic character at the improvisational comedy troupe the Groundlings in the 1970s. Pee-wee's most successful period was in the mid-1980s to early-90s, when he starred in a feature film directed by Tim Burton and Pee-wee's Playhouse, a children's show which won 15 Emmys during its original run.
12	Terence Crawford	820,208	After being champion in the lightweight and light welterweight classes, this boxer is now undisputed championship at welterweight after fighting Errol Spence Jr. in a title unification match.
13	Twitter	722,325	Elon Musk simply thinks that changing both the logo and the name of a social network will make people go "X Gon' Give It to Ya"! The truth is less than that, as the Twitter userbase clearly is like Chicago residents who are still calling one building "Sears Tower". If only more people used Threads to really make Musk change his mind.
14	Margot Robbie	715,320	She's a Barbie girl in a Barbie world in #5.
15	Lewis Strauss	700,056	Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s, he was the driving force behind the Oppenheimer security hearings, which resulted in #3 getting his Q clearance revoked. Played by Robert Downey Jr. in #2.
16	Cillian Murphy	672,165	#3's portrayer. And more excuses to remind of him as psycho psychologist Jonathan Crane.
17	FIFA Women's World Cup	611,115	Started in 1991, and only four nations have won it. At the latest edition (#6) two of them - Norway and Germany - crashed and burned in the group stage, while the biggest winner - you know, the one that calls this sport 'soccer' - got some bouts of déjà vu and were beaten by a Swedish team parking the bus and forcing the penalty shootouts. Time will tell if Japan will manage to win again, or if a fifth champion will emerge instead.
18	Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One	587,239	"Barbenheimer" (#2+#5) has been making money as if it was the IMF, while also being a financial drawback to another IMF, the Impossible Missions Force that employs agent Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise. This here writer hopes that at least Dead Reckoning outgrosses Mission: Impossible 2, which is only $60 million away. And that of course the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes are solved to let Part Two finish filming, lest the wait until June gets delayed even further.
19	Ryan Gosling	579,006	He's just Ken in #5 but the song he sings was named by some as the highlight of the film, even granting the remarkably handsome actor a spot on the Billboard charts. The whole soundtrack is doing pretty well with other hits including a dance jam by the pop star who played a mermaid in the film, as well as a duet between two rap queens who sampled the world's most famous song about Barbie dolls, which itself could not be included in the soundtrack due to a series of lawsuits over the song with Mattel.
20	SummerSlam (2023)	570,988	WWE's latest event, held at Detroit's Ford Field. The highlight included Jimmy Uso betraying his own twin brother Jey (pictured) and allowing cousin Roman Reigns to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Talk about low blow.
21	Meg 2: The Trench	568,571	Out of the two big film releases of the week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem didn't get enough views but here is the return of Jason Statham facing off against the megalodon. Reviews were mostly negative, even if this here writer preferred it to The Meg, as there was an intent to make the moments without creatures of the depths less tedious and instead eventful and tense, along with delivering more "man vs. giant shark" (plus giant squid, and some amphibious lizards somewhat reminiscent of the Jurassic Park raptors...). Let's see if other moviegoers will respond so well.
22	Christopher Nolan	566,445	#2's director has along with critical acclaim made lots of money in the last 15 years, as aside from Tenet, which was hindered by coming out in the middle of a pandemic, all his movies ever since The Dark Knight earned at least $500 million worldwide.
23	Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani	565,502	Hollywood took over the Report in the last few weeks, so let's remind us that Bollywood always finds a way back, with this romantic comedy starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt that is picking up the crore.
24	Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3	546,629	Disney+ received the addition of the year's third most successful movie thus far (behind #5 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie), the last contribution of James Gunn to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that serves as a farewell to the team that won over audiences in 2014, or at least most of its members. The franchise's next movie, The Marvels, is due for November.
25	Greta Gerwig	541,425	Keeping off a recently retired English cricketer, a recently deceased American actor and an AI that kept itself on this list for 7 months is the actress turned writer-director responsible for #5.