As usual for the time of year, pop culture rules this week. The start of summer vacation in the US means a focus on summer movies, particularly blockbuster sequels Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road, though the meaning of the term "summer movie" has become increasingly vague as blockbusters open earlier and earlier. Pop cultural competition the Eurovision Song Contest had a similar impact, as did summer TV shows Game of Thrones and The Flash.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of May 17 to 23, 2015, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mad Max: Fury Road | 
|
1,515,128 | .png) |
Numbers are up 35% for this action film starring Tom Hardy in the title role, which debuted on Australia on May 14 and in the United States the next day. Despite topping this list, and receiving rapturous reviews (it currently stands at 98% at Rotten Tomatoes), it has not managed to claim the top spot at the box office, being hobbled by Pitch Perfect 2 and then Tomorrowland. But while box office is a big mover of Wikipedia views, controversy is the Bagger 288, and when a mildly antediluvian men's rights activist from the modestly named website returnofkings.com declared that no one should see "Mad Max: Feminist Road", the media smelled some blood and went into a predictable spin. While he admits he hasn't actually, well, seen the film, the guy's gripes are apparently that Max doesn't speak in the trailers, while Charlize Theron does (remind me, how many lines did Max have in The Road Warrior?) and that Theron "Barks orders at Mad Max. Nobody barks orders at Mad Max". I guess he must have missed Tina Turner's immortal line in Beyond Thunderdome, "You can shovel ****, can't you?". Anyway, the only apparent result of this "controversy" is that more women have gone to see the film, which should give it the legs to recover its $150 million budget. |
| 2 | David Letterman | 
|
879,202 |  |
The American talk show host finally retired this week after 33 years on late night television, first on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman and then CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman. In the decades following his defeat in the brief war of succession for the throne of Johnny Carson, Letterman may not have achieved the ratings of the eventual victor, his onetime friend Jay Leno, but was always seen by opinion makers as the true heir to Carson's legacy, not least by Carson himself. While Leno contented himself with puerile caricatures and flat one-liners, Letterman was prickly, genuine, and fiercely topical, often barely concealing disdain for guests he didn't like. His humour bordered on the surreal; sometimes he would blow up cabs or drop televisions out of windows for no reason, while another time he turned two local souvenir shop owners named Mujibur and Sirajul into overnight celebrities just, well, because. With Leno and Letterman passing into the night, the battle has passed to the next generation, with each handing their respective chairs to Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert. |
| 3 | Mad Max |
|
815,965 | |
The 1979 film starring Mel Gibson that started the absurdly influential Mad Max franchise, now resurrected after three decades in hibernation. |
| 4 | Eurovision Song Contest 2015 |
|
752,700 |  |
Numbers have almost doubled for this year's event, probably due to its being the diamond jubilee of this most peculiar of international competitions. Politics threatened to rear its ugly head again after it seemed likely that Russia would win the popular vote, and thus the dubious privilege of hosting next year. Thankfully the prospect of one of the most gay-friendly events in the world being held in a country with stringent anti-gay laws was ultimately undone by eventual winner, Sweden. |
| 5 | Avengers: Age of Ultron |
|
717,191 |  |
The latest instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossed the banner $1 billion worldwide mark this week. |
| 6 | Game of Thrones (season 5) |
|
703,082 |  |
Numbers are up this week, which isn't surprising, since the latest episode, "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" featured certified sadist Ramsay Bolton raping virginal Sansa Stark to the rage of a number of viewers, particularly the feminist blog "The Mary Sue", who stated they would no longer review the show. |
| 7 | The Flash (2014 TV series) |
|
656,073 |  |
This spinoff from the hit series Arrow marks DC Comics' second attempt to create a TV universe, after the late and much lamented DC Animated Universe. Numbers are up this week for the season finale, which aired on May 19. |
| 8 | Stephen Curry | 
|
636,375 | .jpg) |
On May 22, during a Western Conference Finals game against the Houston Rockets, the basketball player for the Golden State Warriors broke the record for the most three-point shots in a playoffs, in just 13 games. |
| 9 | Payback (2015) | Future | 632,394 |  |
WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime was held on May 17 at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 10 | Pitch Perfect 2 |
|
424,773 | .jpg) |
This American musical comedy film, and sequel to 2012's Pitch Perfect which generated the improbable hit song "Cups", debuted in North America May 15. Starring Anna Kendrick (pictured), it has grossed $187 million worldwide as of May 27 on a budget of just $29 million, only a fifth that of Mad Max: Fury Road. Interestingly, while that film has suddenly become lauded for its feminism, this one, which is geared specifically towards women and has consistently beat it at the box office so far, has been criticised for fat jokes, racial stereotypes and other easy, regressive forms of humour. |
Discuss this story
What is a Future class article? I've never seen one before. Hawkeye7 (talk) 23:52, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
This is not a place I expected to run into a Game of Thrones spoiler. sigh —Naddy (talk) 12:16, 30 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- The episode is two weeks old, dude. At some point, you can't call them spoilers anymore. Serendipodous 12:18, 30 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Not everyone can watch it on first release. Personally, I won't be able to see it until it's available for streaming or released on DVD (and the technical capability for streaming is a new thing for me); although I had already been spoiled on this by a different site. Two weeks isn't really a reasonable spoiler-expiry period for all readers. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 16:38, 2 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
- Which is the point. That episode is controversial, and so weas reported on other sites and in the news. And led to a spike in Wikipedia views. If that happens, I will record it; if it doesn't, I won't. Wikipedia doesn't do spoiler warnings and I don't intend to either. Frankly, if you come to this article expecting not to read about Game of Thrones, you haven't come to this article before. Serendipodous 17:02, 2 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Mmmm... Seems like Signpost isnt automatically going into my talk page. Lightspeed2012 23:43, 5 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]