Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/August 30 to September 5, 2020

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (August 30 to September 5, 2020)

Prepared with commentary by Kingsif and Igordebraga

⭠ Last week's report

People are still not interested in reading the COVID-19 pandemic article enough to bring it back here. The recently deceased - including the actor who again tops the list - plus politics and whatever is on streaming, television and now reopening movie theaters seem much more appealing than the disease that can't leave soon enough!

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Chadwick Boseman 3,974,415 The untimely death of a talented actor, who played three iconic African Americans (Thurgood Marshall, James Brown and Jackie Robinson) and Marvel Comics' first black superhero (#7), is still being felt by his fans. Though that is no excuse for pestering one of his co-stars just because she didn't post an eulogy.
2 Tenet (film) 1,587,728 Christopher Nolan's long-awaited drama got postponed due to the pandemic that has slipped off the list again, but was released in movie theaters last week. Tenet had good reviews, even if with criticism for a confusing plot that was not helped by drowning dialogue under noise, and opened to a somewhat respectable $20 million given most theaters are still closed and many people are still afraid of going out during a pandemic.
3 Cobra Kai 1,192,835 Netflix released the show, previously exclusive to YouTube Premium, that brings back The Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso, the guy who he crane kicked in the face, Johnny Lawrence, and the former sensei of the title dojo, John Kreese (whose actor Martin Kove is seen with a fan to the left)
4 Pranab Mukherjee 940,517 The 13th President of India has passed away at the age of 84.
5 Deaths in 2020 817,442 It's a Dead Man's Party
Who could ask for more?
Everybody's coming
Leave your body at the door!
6 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 811,642 His father was a Senator, his uncle was President... and in spite of all this great legacy before him, RFK Jr. is on the news for making the world worse, being anti-vaccination and pro-COVID-19 idiocy, down to speaking in a partially violent demonstration in Berlin calling for an end to anti-Corona restrictions. (Strangely, the redirects to his article got more hits than the actual title.)
7 Black Panther (film) 764,462 The film starred #1 as the first lead role for a black superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and made over $1 billion. This week it was given special screenings on TV in the U.S., as well as re-released in some movie theaters, in tribute to the film's deceased star.
8 Mulan (2020 film) 744,896 The pandemic screwed over the release of Disney's latest live-action remake, originally scheduled for March and postponed to the point the company decided to put it on Disney+ under the hefty tag of $30. And so, at least in the United States, the streaming service received Yifei Liu (pictured) playing the Chinese girl who decided to fight a war in her father's place (who wasn't royalty or married into it, but still counted as a Disney Princess), only now without the Eddie Murphy dragon or that awesome montage song.
9 The Boys (2019 TV series) 625,976 Still on streaming: after The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, another subversive superhero show returned, namely the Prime Video comic book adaptation where "supes" are corporate puppets and overall jerks - and now we can't even say the exception are the women, as Season 2 made the jaded veteran and the still idealistic newcomer be joined by a racist sociopath named after a neo-Nazi website.
10 William Zabka 593,068 The two stars of #3 (seen with Martin Kove in the picture to the left), one whose career barely registered afterwards - at most he produced an Academy Award-nominated short - and another who has been working steadily and even had a guitar duel against Steve Vai!
11 Ralph Macchio 544,834
12 Payback (2020) 514,803 While the NBA holds its postseason at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, the nearest proper basketball arena, Orlando's Amway Center, hosted a WWE event.
13 QAnon 488,059 The only conspiracy theory that is pro-government.
14 Tom Seaver 485,612 One of the Miracle Mets who won the World Series in 1969, Seaver died at the age of 75 as a result of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19.
15 Afghan Girl 445,757 Long time no see, Reddit. A r/TIL thread recalled the story of a famous National Geographic cover, whose "model" was found 17 years later through iris recognition.
16 Shooting of Jacob Blake 434,945 It's been a very violent and complicated year for racial matters in North America, as sadly demonstrated by seeing a Black man being shot by the police in the back seven times during his arrest. Along with protests, some athletes went on strike.
17 Elon Musk 421,043 For some less controversial news on Musk for a change, he's now the fifth richest man in the world and announced progress of the research at Neuralink.
18 Lovecraft Country (TV series) 420,780 Readers are still intrigued by HBO's adaptation of a book that crosses Jim Crow laws with cosmic horror monsters.
19 Avengers (2020 video game) 408,770 Square Enix has come to the rescue of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans, who can play this game featuring the Avengers from the 2012 film (though Kamala Khan replaces Hawkeye in the main story) to fill in the void left when the goddamn pandemic postponed Black Widow and the Disney+ shows.
20 The New Mutants (film) 407,321 Given the contract for what could be an X-Men spinoff series obligated a theatrical release, the superhero horror starring among others Anya Taylor-Joy (pictured) as Magik opened atop the box office... when theaters are barely open. Reviewers also noted that the movie clearly could have been better if corporate moves hadn't tied the hands of the filmmakers regarding reshoots and such.
21 Donny van de Beek 406,715 Manchester United purchased this Dutch striker from AFC Ajax.
22 Joe Biden 402,334 The Democrats' hope for beating Trump. Now finally with more views than his running mate.
23 Masaba Gupta 386,200 Netflix and India, a winning combo to get an entry here. This fashion designer stars alongside her equally famous mother, actress Nina Gupta, in the streaming service's show Masaba Masaba.
24 Pat Morita 385,553 The only main character of The Karate Kid - aside from the love interest, given every movie has a new one! - that didn't return in #3 was trickster mentor, Mr. Miyagi, stated to have died because his portrayer (who coincidentally was also in the cartoon remade as #8) also left this mortal coil in 2005.
25 Keanu Reeves 379,823 Finishing off with another nostalgia-fueled entry: while Keanu Reeves' fears that his tombstone would simply read "He was Ted" are no longer true, he still returned to his star-making role in Bill & Ted Face the Music.

Exclusions

  • 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 exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% 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.