Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/August 11 to 17, 2024

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 11 to 17, 2024)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Vestrian24Bio, Marinette2356, Alexysun and CAWylie

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One last week for the Olympics, politics and movies still much present... and somehow there are also articles pushed in by the Gravity Falls fandom.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Deadpool & Wolverine	1,865,839	A few weeks after its release, the sole Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of the year managed to top the Report. It's no surprise, as it was a sure fire way to get a hit by teaming up the two X-Men that earned solo movies, the overtly irreverent Deadpool and the embittered and grumpy Wolverine, and fans also liked to see along with the expected action and comedy the unexpected return of characters from non-MCU Marvel adaptations (including from a movie that never came out). Deadpool & Wolverine made over a billion dollars and surpassed Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated movie. (although the clown from the Distinguished Competition will have a chance to earn its belt back in October, when Joker: Folie à Deux will probably make some people go gaga)
2	Alien: Romulus	1,299,377	Like the Predator two years ago, the Alien got another chance at the movies. Set between the first and second installment of the series, Alien: Romulus has a group of scavengers raiding an abandoned space station, only to discover the place was used to study a particularly vicious alien creature who is subsequently out to get them. Reviewers and fans alike were impressed at how director Fede Alvarez made Alien: Romulus both frightening and stylistically faithful to the earlier Alien movies, and already made back its budget in a single weekend with $108 million worldwide.
3	2024 Summer Olympics	1,252,858	The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad hosted by Paris concluded last Sunday with US finishing atop the table for the fourth consecutive time and overall 19th time - it was a tight affair, given the US had the same number of golds as China (not helped by Russia's absence). Event concluded with the Olympic flag handed over to Tom Cruise who carried it to Los Angeles, the host city of the next olympics (#12).
4	It Ends with Us	1,032,327	This 2016 romance novel, about dealing with domestic violence and emotional abuse, nearly spawned a coloring book in 2023, until author Colleen Hoover wisely changed her mind. Instead, it was adapted into a film (#8) that released last week.
5	Deaths in 2024	981,509	They say an end can be a start Feels like I've been buried, yet I'm still alive...
6	Stree 2	893,252	This Bollywood sequel to the 2018 film was released last Friday coinciding with the Indian Independence day and opened to positive reviews from critics. The film has already emerged as the sixth highest-grossing Indian film of 2024 and third highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024.
7	Rachael Gunn	842,250	"Raygun" had a rough week. She entered the Olympics as a breakdancer with her Australian team (albeit not in the proper attire), scored zeroes in the first round against three competitors, and quickly became the target of online bullies, to the point that a petition on Change.org was made regarding her "unethical conduct" and whether or not she should have even been on an Olympic team. AOC executive Matt Carroll saw the veiled bullying of an entry and called for its subsequent removal. Gunn herself has lashed out at the internet trolls.
8	It Ends with Us (film)	824,641	The Justin Baldoni-directed adaptation of #4 opened second at the box office, right behind #1. The competition between husband and wife Ryan Reynolds and #10's latest cinema releases over the top spot certainly does resemble last year's unforgettable battle between a doll and an atomic bomb.
9	Kamala Harris	762,832	Americans don't really know what Harris stands for, apparently, so they go to Wikipedia.
10	Blake Lively	701,559	The wife of #1 star Ryan Reynolds plays the lead character in #8. Though the film did come in second at the box office, right behind Marvel's latest release, Lively's presence on this list is most likely enhanced due to the feud with her co-star and director Justin Baldoni and the unusual press tour of It Ends with Us, which had the two lead stars promoting the film separately (unlike the currently inseparable Reynolds and Hugh Jackman), as well as Lively framing her movie like a celebratory girls' night, despite its' heavy subject on domestic violence and physical abuse, and promoting her new haircare line.
11	Twisters (film)	686,109	A surprisingly steady performer in the American box office is this disaster movie, that in spite of competition from #1, #8 and even holdovers like Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 is still in the top 3 and close to matching if not surpassing the $241.8 million earned by Twister back in 1996. Granted, international numbers aren't as high ($88 million), showing that this time foreign audiences were not as interested in tornadoes, but still an impressive showing considering the original movie barely left a cultural mark aside from destruction scenes and a flying cow.
12	2028 Summer Olympics	657,808	With the Paris 2024 Games (#2) coming to an end last Sunday, people have set eyes on the next Summer Olympics to be hosted by Los Angeles. Like Paris, LA will receive the Olympics for the third time (priorly in 1932 and 1984), the sports will see the inclusion of baseball/softball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football and squash, and the venues will include both the newly inaugurated Intuit Dome and two places far from California, taking advantage of a softball stadium and a canoe slalom complex already built in Oklahoma City.
13	Ketamine	648,599	The "mean green Special K" dissociative anesthestic used to treat depression and help manage pain returns to mainstream news, following an announcement that five people have been charged with helping Matthew Perry acquire lethal doses in 2023, which contributed to his death in October.
14	List of Olympic Games host cities	636,481	As of the latest 142nd IOC Session US is set to become the first nation to host 10 Olympics–5 Summer games (1904, 1932, 1984, 1996, 2028) & 5 Winter games (1932, 1960, 1980, 2002, 2034), while France is set to host 7 Olympics–3 Summer games (1900, 1924, 2024) & 4 Winter games (1924, 1968, 1992, 2030). As an aside, the four confirmed bids for the 2036 Summer Olympics are all for would-be first-time hosts, including India.
15	Eye of Providence	622,436	In a reminder that at times weird things propel entries onto this list, Gravity Falls, a long-finished but apparently still very popular cartoon, saw the release of a related novel, The Book of Bill. The marketing included https://thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com/ , in which inputting certain passwords led to other webpages, including both these Wikipedia articles. Why them? Bill Cipher is literally a triangle that looks like the Eye of Providence - like the one from the $1 bill, which is probably the reason for the name.
16	Triangle	612,211
17	Sifan Hassan	616,258	Dutch runner Sifan Hassan won the Olympic women's marathon on August 11th, running 26.2 miles in Olympic record time. She edged out Ethiopian world-record holder Tigst Assefa to win gold by 3 seconds.
18	August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion	572,300	#3 had Russians and Belarusians banned aside from a very small number of athletes due to an awful thing that simply doesn't end, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.The Ukrainians had already been attacking Russia in retaliation since it started in 2022, and now have downright crossed the border to occupy the Kursk Oblast.
19	Imane Khelif	562,384	On August 9, Khelif won the gold medal in the women's welterweight event at the #3, after the heavy online backlash she has received for the past few weeks regarding her gender identity. Following her win, Khelif filed a criminal complaint for cyberbullying, which, among other individuals, names transgender people's number one enemy, who spent years trying to erase trans women, just to hurt a cisgender woman in the end. I guess karma hits you back even if you're a Muggle as powerful as the Harry Potter creator.
20	Tim Walz	558,715	Kamala's VP pick for the 2024 United States presidential election. He was #1 on last week's report. Not much more to say on him. People are coming to Wikipedia to read more about him, because he was relatively unknown before he was picked as the Democrat's Vice Presidential nominee.
21	Mpox	552,349	Monkeypox, an infectious virus first detected in laboratory simians in 1958 and once-believed "uncommon" in humans, has now spread across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, several African countries, and, at last report, into Sweden. Think they would revoke the monkey's passports by now.
22	Murder of Laci Peterson	549,598	Two documentary series about the marital murder case at Christmas 2002 emerged this month, one on Netflix and one on Peacock. This tracks with reports of "new evidence" and calls for DNA testing supporting Scott Peterson's (pictured) claim of innocence in the death of his wife Laci. Prosecutors in the case fired back claiming Scott lied about the circumstances of his wife's death, as well DNA has already been tested twice in the case.
23	Gena Rowlands	546,749	"I'll be seeing you." This 94-year-old American actress died this week from Alzheimer's disease, not unlike her character in the 2004 film The Notebook (spoiler!).
24	JD Vance	532,035	Trump's VP pick for the 2024 United States presidential election. He was also on last week's report. Not much more to say on him. People are coming to Wikipedia to read more about him, because he was relatively unknown before he was picked as the Republican's Vice Presidential nominee, although speculation was brewing months in advance on who Trump would pick for his VP.
25	Simone Biles	519,690	Keeping off Borderlands, a reminder that Hollywood still makes badly received video game movies, is the gymnast who had a great showing at #3, with three gold medals and a silver, and in the closing ceremony was part of the passing of the Olympic flag symbolizing the transition to #12, that Biles has not discarded participating in to compete at home, no matter if her sport is usually not contested by women in their 30s.