Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/September 17 to 23, 2017

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Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (September 17 to 23, 2017)[edit]

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga and OZOO

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Looks Like Those Clowns in Hollywood did "It" Again[edit]

Clowns to the left of them, Emmys to the right: It, the Stephen King novel recently adapted into a movie, continues to dominate the list with five entries - although this time, Alexander Skarsgård (#25), brother of the film's star (#13), also fits another big event of the week, the Emmy Awards (#23), as he is part of Big Little Lies (#17), the year's biggest winner alongside The Handmaid's Tale (#8). Another horror movie, mother!, is #2 on the list, while the movie which kicked It off the top of the box office, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, brings itself to #7 and the first installment to #21, and Queen Victoria (#18) returns to the Top 25 thanks to the Judi Dench-starring feature Victoria & Abdul. There are a few holdovers from the previous week: the boxers in Canelo Álvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin (#5, #16), the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season (#12) that has now struck Puerto Rico, the pursued Burmese minorities (#22), and the ever-present death list (#6) - speaking of which, there is an entry for a deceased wrestling manager\commentator (#20). Completing the list, two entries pushed by Google Doodles (#4, #9) and one by Reddit (#14), the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah (#15) and a rapper who only enters the list because he's keeping up with the Kardashians (#10).

For the week of September 17 to 23, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 It (2017 film) c Class 1,700,815
The creepy clown movie three-peats at number one on this list, the first article to do so since the UEFA Euro 2016 championship in June/July last year. With the movie only covering the first half of the book, and the big money (it has passed The Exorcist as the highest-grossing horror movie ever) and reviews the film has made, no surprise that a sequel has been announced for 2019, but disappointingly they will be likely re-casting the young actors for the 30-year distant follow up, rather than artificially ageing them using CGI and/or magic.
2 mother! Start Class 1,242,743
Jennifer Lawrence (pictured) stars in this psychological horror film, the kind you would expect from Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky. Only this time along with being disturbing the thing is so weird that reception has been polarizing by both audiences - as marked by unusually low box office openings and unanimous dislike from CinemaScore polls - and reviewers.
3 It (novel) start Class 786,030 The success of It (#1) understandably also boosts the source material by Stephen King (pictured), specially since the on-screen title is It: Chapter One, given half the novel is still left for a sequel, to be released in 2019.
4 Samuel Johnson featured Class 780,013 A Google Doodle celebrated the 308th birth anniversary of this writer and lexicographer, author of A Dictionary of the English Language, the premier dictionary until the OED was released 150 years later.
5 Gennady Golovkin start Class 713,828 This Kazakhstani boxer (who unlike Borat, even warrants his own stamps) retained his unified world championship by defeating Canelo Álvarez (#16) in a split draw.
6 Deaths in 2017 list Class 704,978
More deaths this week, including the world's richest woman and the boxer known as "Raging Bull". On the plus side, given Blue Whale (game) is finally off the list, there is less death overall in this top 25.
7 Kingsman: The Golden Circle c Class 691,194
It's reign atop the box office ended with this spy action-comedy, sequel to one of 2015's surprise hits (#20). However, reviewers didn't provide the same support as audiences. All I hope is that it's not as disappointing as Kick-Ass 2, also a sequel to a Mark Millar comic adaptation.
8 The Handmaid's Tale (TV series) c Class 667,683
Big triumph for Hulu's dystopian series at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards (#23); with the series winning a total of eight awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesElisabeth Moss (pictured) – and the big award for Outstanding Drama Series, becoming the first online series to win that award.
9 Asima Chatterjee c Class 586,318 Google strikes again! This time an homage to the centenary of the first Indian woman with a Doctorate of Science, whose body of work includes the vinca alkaloid (pictured) and medicine to treat epilepsy and malaria.
10 Travis Scott c Class 530,356 As a contributor to Genius, I know the rap world is eagerly waiting Scott's album AstroWorld. However, his popularity spike is instead due to the rapper being part of the Kardashian-Jenner family, as his girlfriend Kylie Jenner announced a pregnancy.
11 It (character) start Class 512,210 See #1 (well, actually a lot of stuff, but #1 mostly). We all float down here...
12 2017 Atlantic hurricane season 511,911 The storms have been so strong people have a reason to check what happened and what is coming next - and the latest one, Hurricane Maria, ravaged Puerto Rico (which narrowly misses the list at #26), leading to the harshest hurricane-related criticism the US government ever received since Katrina in 2005. Arguably even worse: Bush certainly didn't have the skewed priorities of Trump, who while an American territory suffered instead complained about NFL players. Certainly not something our WikiProject on tropical cyclones expected.
13 Bill Skarsgård Start Class 485,798 Skarsgård, son of Stellan and brother to the elsewhere listed Alexander (#25), plays Pennywise / It in It. Obviously, his next role, after playing an evil, murderous demon clown, is to play Moomintroll in a new Moomins animation.
14 Oligodynamic effect 462,718 Google pushed two entries onto the list, so why not Reddit? r/TIL found out about the effect that causes some metals to self-sterilize.
15 Rosh Hashanah b Class 459,879 The Jewish New Year happened between September 20 and 22.
16 Canelo Álvarez b Class 458,718 Mexican boxer Álvarez tried to become world champion by fighting Gennady Golovkin (#5), but the fight ended in a draw.
17 Big Little Lies (miniseries) c Class 419,732
Another success story from the Emmys (#23), with the HBO miniseries picking up eight awards including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or MovieNicole Kidman (pictured) – and the big award for Outstanding Limited Series.
18 Queen Victoria Featured Article 401,818
After Victoria and The Crown, the old British queen returns to the list. This time, it's possibly caused by Victoria & Abdul a sequel to Mrs Brown (and I thought Elizabeth: The Golden Age was a rare case of this!) centered around Judi Dench's Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim that saw a limited theatrical release on the U.S. one week after its British debut.
19 Pablo Escobar B Class 397,778 Even if Narcos has moved on from the Medellín cartel to the Cali one, the show's holdover on the list is the famed drug lord who appeared in the first two seasons. In the meantime, this week American theaters see the release of American Made, where Tom Cruise plays a pilot who helped smuggle Escobar's drugs onto the U.S.
20 Bobby Heenan b Class 394,014 From boxing to a more staged fight: famed professional wrestling manager and commentator Bobby "The Brain" Heenan died at the age of 72 following years suffering with throat cancer.
21 Kingsman: The Secret Service c Class 366,406
With the sequel in theaters (#4), the original Kingsman, where we met Colin Firth pretending to be James Bond (pictured), also sees a popularity spike.
22 Rohingya people c Class 358,808 A minority ethnicity in Myanmar that has faced political discrimination, the crisis has recently escalated.
23 69th Primetime Emmy Awards Start-class 354,717
This year's ceremony for the best in television was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Amidst wins for The Handmaid's Tale (#8), Big Little Lies (#17), Veep, Saturday Night Live and Last Week Tonight, the opening speech by host Stephen Colbert (picture) had a surprise appearance by Sean Spicer doing some self-parody.
24 It (miniseries) c Class 352,431
The first time #3 was adapted was this 1990 miniseries, where Tim Curry played the evil clown (#11).
25 Alexander Skarsgård c Class 347,387 Not only is Skarsgård the brother of #13 - quite the family, as Alex was a vampire, Bill a killer clown, and father Stellan, a pirate - but he won an Emmy (#23) for Big Little Lies (#17).

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 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.
Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.