Surfin' the Yuletide: Unlike last year, Wikipedia viewers seem to have embraced the Christmas spirit, with three topics in the top 10 (and eight in the top 25) focused on the holiday season.
For the full top 25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions.
Unlike last year, Wikipedia viewers seem to have embraced the Christmas spirit, with three topics in the top 10 (and nine in the top 25) focused on the holiday season. The other theme this week was movies (which are really just another aspect of the Christmas season) with four slots about movies or people who were the topic of movies. And of course, the passing of the great Joe Cocker was noted as well.
So, the story goes that this typically absurd American male comedy film starring Seth Rogen (pictured) and James Franco, which lampoons a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, led to the November 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, and then subsequent internet threats to unleash "September the eleventh" levels of violence if the movie was released, which led movie theater chains to refuse to screen the film, which led Sony to pull the movie's release altogether, a reaction which a cybersecurity expert called "beyond the realm of stupid." (There's a reason you're never supposed to negotiate with terrorists; doing so is handing the fox the key to your chicken coop.) North Korea denied the hack, and saw its own flimsy internet connections flame out on December 22. On December 23, Sony announced the movie would now get a "limited release" on December 25, and on December 24, released the film online. The online release generated an "opening weekend" gross of $15 million, with two million downloads in the first three days, which goes to show that: a) it is possible to keep people safe without conceding to those who threaten them; b) controversy is free advertising and c) movie theatres are dead.
And, just like last year, the most queried element of the holiday season is not Christmas, but its less-celebrated addendum. Perhaps Americans remain puzzled over why their Commonwealth cousins get an extra day of Christmas each year, and what on Earth the Nativity has to do with pugilism (to be fair, no one really knows how Boxing Day got its name, and any stories you hear are pretty much stabs in the dark).
This Bollywood film starring Aamir Khan debuted on December 19. The Indian press seems to have liked it, with Bollywood Hungama calling it "a solid entertainer that will surely entertain the masses and classes alike", and reviewer Subhash K. Jha giving it 4 out of 5 stars, saying "'PK' is a film designed to warm the cockles of the heart." The plot revolves around the arrival a human-looking alien on earth who needs to recover a stolen piece of his equipment, and includes satire regarding the phenomenon Indian "godmen". The film grossed about US $25 million in its opening weekend and, in its first 11 days has already become the second-highest grossing Bollywood film of all time, with a worldwide box office of Rs4.34 billion ($68 million).
This American sniper, whose life was the subject of the appropriately named Clint Eastwood-directed film American Sniper, which went into wide release on Christmas Day, is considered the most lethal in US military history, with 160 confirmed kills. Unfortunately, he was murdered last year by a PTSD-afflicted veteran whom he had taken to a shooting range. Before he died, he had claimed that he had once punched former wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura in 2006 for badmouthing U.S. President Bush and the military. Ventura sued him for defamation, eventually getting a $1.8 million jury award. Last week, Ventura filed a new lawsuit directly against HarperCollins, who published Kyle's book, called, naturally, American Sniper.
The final instalment of The Hobbit film series debuted in New Zealand on December 11, and the United States on December 17. The film topped the US charts in its second weekend and, as of December 29, has already earned nearly $600 million worldwide.
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550,000, apparently heedless of who actually died.
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Discuss this story
Why is "Christmas" #5 when its views are lesser than #6 to #10? Can someone fix this? Nahnah4 (talk | contribs | guestbook) 03:34, 3 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]