Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/December 1 to 7, 2024

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (December 1 to 7, 2024)

Prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Vestrian24Bio, Marinette2356, DementiaGaming, CAWylie.

⭠ Last week's report

This week is one of those that avoids Americentrism, where along with all United States topics we have entries on Indian cinema, Korean politics, Syrian conflicts, and a Brazilian driver.

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes/about
1	Pushpa 2: The Rule		2,707,690		The much-awaited sequel to the 2021 Tollywood film Pushpa: The Rise was finally released last week after 3 years. It stars Allu Arjun (pictured) in the titular role, paired with Rashmika Mandanna. The film recovered its ₹500 crore (US$60 million) budget within just 3 days, becoming the first Indian film to gross ₹500 crores in 3 days.
2	Kash Patel		2,038,926		Selected by the president-elect Donald Trump to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during Trump's second presidency.
3	Wicked (2024 film)		1,215,749		A well-received, star-studded theater adaptation (#7), offering a revisionist take on the Land of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West is just a victim of prejudice and propaganda that decided to embrace the bad image painted upon her. Along with making lots of money - mostly in North America, where it passed the $300 million mark - Wicked is expected to become an awards contender.
4	Syrian civil war		1,090,108		A war that started when I was eight months old still continues to this day. Syria’s civil war can be described as a hell on earth, with 620,000 deaths (half of whom are civilians) and millions of displaced folks. The reason it’s this high is the recent rebel offensive (#9) that wiped out Ba'athist Syria and Bashar Al-Assad with it. In no more than 11 days.
5	Martial law		1,036,797		The replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Only reason it's here now is because of #13.
6	Deaths in 2024		1,010,937		Quoting one of the biggest hits of this year by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga: If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over and our time on earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while And die with a smile...
7	Wicked (musical)		994,074		The book adaptation that made a killing on Broadway before getting the film treatment (#3). The original Elphaba (Idina Menzel) and Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth) have cameos in the movie, and many countries that staged their own versions of Wicked brought the women who played the witches to dub their film counterparts (such as the two to the left, Mexicans Danna Paola and Ceci de la Cueva, in the Latin American Spanish version).
8	UnitedHealth Group		939,448		This American health insurance provider, currently 8th on Fortune's Global 500, places higher than that of its CEO (#10), following his being gunned down in NYC this week. Their greed elicited contempt on social media, even so far as to view Thompson's death as justified, vindicating the thousands of deaths each year, due to the company denying health care coverage.
9	2024 Syrian opposition offensives		937,915		The Syrian opposition hadn't done a military offensive campaign since 2020, but with the help of allied Turkish-backed groups, decided to finally go all-in against the forces of Bashar Al-Assad. After taking back cities such as Aleppo, Homs and Palmyra, the rebels ended the week covered by this report invading capital Damascus. By the early hours of Sunday Assad fled to Russia, ending a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship that had ruled Syria ever since Assad's father took over in a 1970 coup.
10	Brian Thompson (businessman)		925,938		The CEO of #8 left his Manhattan hotel at 6:45 on the morning of December 4 and was walking across the street to attend an investor's meeting. He didn't make it to the door. He was shot several times from behind and died thirty minutes later. He had previously received death threats, and his assailant from out of town had been staying in a NYC hostel for ten days.
11	Moana 2		867,442		Disney's first Polynesian protagonist/princess returned in a movie originally conceived as a streaming miniseries. Critics were unimpressed, saying that in spite of great visuals the story was a downgrade. Yet the success of Moana, that along with nearly $700 million at the box office is the most viewed movie ever on Disney+, ensured there was an audience eagerly waiting for its sequel, leading Moana 2 to have an impressive $389 million opening of five days (taking advantage of an American holiday), more than doubling its budget, and the numbers should only grow, particularly for unimpressive competition during the second weekend.
12	Yoon Suk Yeol		823,170		In what has been described as a "self-coup", "political suicide", and "stupid", the South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared #5 with no advance warning. Within 2 hours, 190 legislators forced themselves into the National Assembly Proceeding Hall (including Lee Jae-myung who livestreamed himself) and unanimously voted to repeal it. Yoon is not popular. He has had consistently low approval ratings, partly due to him stopping multiple corruption investigations into his wife, Kim Keon-hee. He has also struggled to do much since the National Assembly is controlled by the opposition party. It seems that the declaration was a last-ditch attempt to keep power, and considering he told almost no one beforehand, was his decision alone. This is the first declaration of martial law since the coup d'état of May Seventeenth, and to older Koreans, recalled the military dictatorship that South Korea had been under. Koreans immediately went into the streets to call for Yoon's impeachment and arrest. Legislators did try to impeach him, but the impeachment has failed since Yoon's party refused to cooperate. Yoon is now banned from leaving South Korea.
13	2024 South Korean martial law		818,225
14	Gladiator II		807,663		As unnecessary as this sequel was, it managed to deliver a crowd pleasing epic, with great actors and no expenses spared (basically every frame of the movie is what you'd expect from a huge budget of at least $250 million), leading to a positive response from reviewers and audiences.
15	Lucky Baskhar		769,906		Dulquer Salmaan stars in this October release about a lower-middle-class man who engages in financial scams to support his family while battling debt. The Indian film began streaming on Netflix on November 28.
16	Ariana Grande		664,605		This not-so-Grande singer (she's 5-foot-2) with a truly Grande voice went from a Nickelodeon actress to a mini Mariah Carey to one of the biggest pop stars in the world. This year, she returned to her acting roots, starring as Glinda in #3.
17	Ayrton Senna		637,146		Ayrton Senna do Brasil! 30 years after this Formula One legend, with 3 world championships, 41 wins and 65 pole positions to his name, died after crashing during a race, a Netflix miniseries told his story, with Senna portrayed by Gabriel Leone. Reception was divisive, particularly regarding characterizations and historical accuracy (for one case, Senna's siblings backed the series and made sure to manifest their grudge against his last girlfriend, greatly reducing her screentime while even passing moments Senna had with her to his most famous fling), but the show quickly shot up Netflix's charts, being also the most successful production made by the streaming service's Brazilian arm.
18	2024 United States presidential election		627,925		People are still trying to process all that happened, specially as the news show Biden's lame duck actions and Trump appointing his upcoming cabinet.
19	Brian Thompson		585,452		#10 only got a Wikipedia page after his murder, so readers just typing "Brian Thompson" ended up going to the page on the American actor best known for playing the villains of Cobra and Mortal Kombat Annihilation (pictured). As Brian Thompson (businessman) was created amidst the commotion, there was also some shuffling sending the actor to Brian Thompson (actor) and turning the page with the name into a disambiguation.
20	Cynthia Erivo		559,714		If this British actress will miraculously win an Academy Award for her role as Elphaba in #3, she will become the youngest EGOT winner ever. Fingers crossed!
21	Pete Hegseth		558,031		Last month, he was selected by the president-elect Donald Trump to be the United States Secretary of Defense in Trump's second cabinet. Pageviews simmered down after a while, but spiked up again this week after a Tuesday NBC News report detailed that Hegseth's Fox News colleagues expressing concern over his drinking problem.
22	Hailee Steinfeld		546,183		A talented actress who even got into singing forays, and that got recent attention with both the second season of Arcane, where she voices a character, and her engagement to NFL player Josh Allen.
23	Survivor Series: WarGames (2024)		537,094		This WWE wrestling event, featuring dual steel cages, was the last to be featured on the WWE Network, first launched in 2014. The WWE has secured a ten-year deal with Netflix but will still remain active in countries where Netflix isn't available. Needless to say, events like Wargames will continue.
24	Hunter Biden		536,849		The incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden's son has been subject of some controversies for some time now. Last week president Biden pardoned his son for all federal offenses committed between 2014 and 2024 in which would be president Biden's last pardon, unless of course he decides re-run in the 2028 election, which would then join the short list of predictions made by NBC's SNL intended as jokes which eventually ended up happening, like Trump's first presidency here in 2015.
25	Killing of JonBenét Ramsey		518,660		A child beauty queen, JonBenét Ramsey, was killed in the basement of her home on Christmas Day 1996. Her death remains unsolved. In November, a documentary was released, and a Paramount+ series is in the works.