Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/November 17 to 23, 2024

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (November 17 to 23, 2024)

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

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Political topics continue to dominate the Top 25 for another week, with sprinkles of cinema in-between.

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Pam Bondi	2,256,474	In 2020, this former Florida attorney general served on Donald Trump's (#16) defense during his first impeachment trial. This led to a job on his organization America First Policy Institute, and now Trump has appointed Bondi as the next United States attorney general after his initial nominee (#7) withdrew.
2	Gladiator II	1,561,228	16 years after he saw in the Colosseum the fatal duel of Maximus and emperor Commodus, Lucius Verus experiences his own version of Maximus' journey, as the Romans kill his wife, enslave him and turn him into a gladiator. No one was requesting this sequel, and like Gladiator it plays fast and loose with Roman history, yet director Ridley Scott managed to deliver another entertaining sword-and-sandal epic, leading to positive reviews and earnings of over $100 million internationally before its North American release, which will determine if the studio can recoup the hefty budget of at least $250 million.
3	Murder of Laken Riley	1,423,886	In February, a nursing student was murdered by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant while jogging at the University of Georgia, causing much commotion (the President mentioned the crime during his 2024 State of the Union address) and leading the House of Representatives to pass an immigration bill named the Laken Riley Act, requiring federal detention of illegal immigrants who commit burglary, given the perpetrator did not stay imprisoned after some arrests for theft last year. Something that won't repeat for the killer, as last week he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole after a trial for 10 charges, including felony murder and aggravated assault with intent to rape.
4	Wicked (2024 film)	1,421,038	In what was called a second coming of Barbenheimer, #2 is opening opposite a girly big release, namely an adaptation of a Broadway juggernaut (#10) centering around Elphaba and Galinda, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch, back when they were newcomers and roommates at the witchcraft school of the Land of Oz. Widely praised for its cast, spearheaded by Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, visuals and music, Wicked is also expected to already cover its $150 million budget with its global opening weekend. And given it only tells half of the musical's story; expectations are high for Wicked Part Two releasing next November.
5	Mike Tyson	1,239,426	It's been a week since this former undisputed heavyweight world champion fought #13 live on Netflix and lost by unanimous decision.
6	Linda McMahon	1,178,863	This former CEO of WWE, a professional wrestling promotion, partially walked away from it (and, later, her famous husband) to enter politics in 2009. She ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. senate seat, but, in 2017, then-President Trump (#16) made her the administrator of the Small Business Administration. On November 19, 2024, Trump nominated her for, what else, secretary of education. Of course.
7	Matt Gaetz	1,147,692	Initially picked by Donald Trump (#16) to be the United States Attorney General during his second presidency term, Gaetz later withdrew, due to the negative reactions from the Senate Republicans associated with recent ethics investigations regarding his alleged misconduct.
8	2024 United States presidential election	1,156,188	Latest U.S. election, between 45th president Donald Trump (#16) and current vice president Kamala Harris, with the former winning.
9	Jon Jones	1,079,287	On November 16 at UFC 309, in a match that was supposed to happen last year, the heavyweight champion knocked out Stipe Miocic with a spinning knee kick in the third round in what was called the "performance of the night."
10	Wicked (musical)	1,082,560	Way before Disney made some questionable retellings of "villain as an anti-heroine" in Maleficent and Cruella, in 1995 Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked, a revisionist biography of the Wicked Witch of the West, now named "Elphaba". 8 years later this musical adaptation hit Broadway, and was a massive hit, being alongside The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King one of three plays to earn over $1 billion on Broadway, and generating multiple international versions (in fact, the picture to the left is the Brazilian one). A film version of the musical is in theaters (#4), and has a cameo of the original portrayers of Elphaba (Idina Menzel) and Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth).
11	Deaths in 2024	1,030,437	Could you be dead? You always were two steps ahead of everyone We'd walk behind while you would run...
12	Miss Universe 2024	892,333	No matter if some question why there are still beauty pageants, there was a competition of good looking women in Mexico, and the winner was Victoria Kjær Theilvig (pictured) of Denmark, marking the first title of her country as well as the first blonde Miss Universe since Jennifer Hawkins 20 years ago.
13	Jake Paul	890,854	It's been a week since this youTuber-turned-professional boxer fought #5 live on Netflix and won by unanimous decision.
14	2024 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election	837,900	A few months after choosing their representatives for the central government, eight of the Indian states voted on their state assemblies. One of them is Maharashtra, the country's second most populous state (which houses their biggest city Mumbai), which mostly went for the Bharatiya Janata Party that already rules the country.
15	Elon Musk	816,417	Elon Musk is back again in the Top 25 as people take interest with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his role in Donald Trump's (#16) administration.
16	Donald Trump	723,648	In 2020, as part of his denial to accept having lost the election, Trump broke the tradition of having the President invite his incoming replacement for a meeting in the White House. Joe Biden brought things back to normal by bringing Trump back last week, leading both men to state they hope the presidential transition is smooth.
17	Mehmet Oz	716,150	No, not the Oz from #4 and #10. And unlike the Wizard he's an actual doctor, albeit one who supports some unscientific things. In any case, Dr. Oz has been appointed to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He was previously the Republican candidate for the 2022 Senate seat election in Pennsylvania in which he lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
18	Kanguva	709,502	Ranked high amongst India's most expensive films, this one was released on November 14 to mixed-to-negative reviews. It stars Suriya in dual roles, as the titular character in the year 1070 and as a bounty hunter (reincarnation of the former) in present day, which singled out critical praise. Although the film had higher expectations to give a theatrical comeback to the actor; it went on to become a Box-office bomb joining the list of highly expected Kollywood films of the year which bombed at the box office (such as Vettaiyan and Indian 2) and was highly trolled by the netizens.
19	Cynthia Erivo	684,683	In #4, the latest actress to convey the "it's not easy Bein' Green" life of Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West is this British woman who already has an Tony Award for The Color Purple and an Academy Award nomination for Harriet.
20	Gladiator (2000 film)	674,517	Roman emperor Commodus was murdered by gladiator Narcissus. In 2000, there was a movie that took this fact and built a very different storyline out of it - the gladiator, named Maximus Decimus Meridius, was a Roman general before Commodus took his ascent to the throne to kill him and his family, and while Maximus survived, he became a slave before joining the blood sports seeking his revenge. Gladiator was very successful, being the second highest-grossing movie of 2000 behind Mission: Impossible 2, and winning five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. Yet in spite of the main character dying in the end, somehow director Ridley Scott always thought of a sequel, and it finally hit theaters (#2).
21	Pete Hegseth	662,073	On November 17, this former Army National Guard officer was nominated by Trump to be the next U.S. secretary of defense. Three days later, the full report of his 2017 sexual assault charge was made public. Trump can pardon that, right?
22	Tulisa	620,276	The rapper who was a member of N-Dubz and a judge on The X Factor UK was one of the people sent to an Australian jungle for the reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
23	Robert F. Kennedy Jr.	606,144	Rounding out the peanut gallery of Trump's cabinet nominees for his next administration is this member of the Kennedy family, this one for U.S. secretary of health and human services. While Kennedy seems most capable of the peanuts and has been an anti-vaccine activist, he is among those many who has promoted and provided COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, namely its links between vaccines and autism.
24	Dune: Prophecy	602,191	While Denis Villeneuve doesn't start filming Dune Messiah, viewers can return to planet Arrakis in this distant prequel, set 10,000 years before the days of Paul Atreides (but with the same technological level, given the show starts by reminding that in the Dune franchise, a war with the machines led computers to be banned) and centered around the Bene Gesserit - including Valya Harkonnen, played by Emily Watson (pictured) - that had its first episode released on HBO Max.
25	Bluesky	537,473	Keeping off Liam Payne, who had a funeral one month after his death once his body was repatriated, is a copy of Twitter that has just passed 20 million users, given the ones already dissatisfied with #15's mishandling of it saw the re-election of #16 as a good reason to jump ship.