You know the feeling when you go into a movie cold, then as soon as you leave the cinema you desperately want to know everything you can about the characters, the story, what you might have missed, etc… thank goodness for Fandom wikis. Or you thought you knew everything about a franchise and then BOOM, a movie pulls the rug out from under you with a spectacular twist, or the introduction of a new character and you’re thirsty to find out more.
The Fandom community does an incredible job creating wikis that are up-to-date with the latest information, rich in detail, and accessible for everyone, and they can be a godsend when a film knocks your socks off (or leaves you completely bewildered).
Here are the ten 2022 movies which gained the largest post-release boost in fans visiting their wikis…
10. Death on the Nile
No one can claim that Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile was an overwhelming success, with middling critical scores and a less-than-impressive box office return. But it did see a 28% boost post-release from the Fandom community. There are several factors that could have contributed to this. The first being that with any murder mystery, viewers may miss specific details during the film that prove pivotal to the plot, so jumping onto the wiki after watching to double-check what you might have missed is always a good bet.
Death on the Nile is also Branagh’s follow-up to his adaptation of Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, so many fans will have visited the wiki to understand how the two films connect.
The other factor is more abstract. The ‘Whodunit?’ genre was one that felt like a dying art until 2019’s Knives Out, which completely revitalised the murder mystery for more casual audiences. It makes sense that a genre that proffers a sense of intrigue to occupy minds and offers escapism from lives that have been plagued by a pandemic and a litany of other less-than-fun things would enjoy a resurgence at this point in time. Long may it continue. The resurgence, not the bad stuff. Disney apparently was ultimately happy with how Death on the Nile performed overall, streaming included, as they’ve greenlit a third film featuring Branagh as Hercule Poirot, 2023’s A Haunting in Venice.
9. Turning Red
Released in March of 2022, Pixar’s Turning Red tells the story of Mei Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who turns into a giant red panda whenever she experiences any strong emotion. It’s a delightful coming-of-age tale, and the first Pixar movie to be solely directed by a woman (Domee Shi) — and one the Fandom community seemingly wanted to learn more about. The wiki experienced a 31% boost in visitors after the film premiered.
Turning Red became a pretty hot cultural button post-release which could be another factor for its wiki boost once audiences had a chance to see it. Its simultaneous release in some theatres and on Disney+ exposed larger audiences to it on its opening weekend than might ordinarily have headed out to see it right away which would also contribute to the bump in wiki visitors.
Telling a story that is startlingly honest about puberty and relationships, while still walking the line of being kid-friendly, is a great achievement and audiences responded to that, but it’s also one that drew a few criticisms from some. Controversy, of course, can be great for provoking more interest. It’s clearly done something right because it’s picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. Hopefully, we’ll see more films like Turning Red in the future from Pixar and Disney.
8. Thor: Love and Thunder
Although Thor: Love and Thunder saw a 38% uplift in visitors to the wiki post-release, it still felt like there weren’t too many people who fell as hard for this movie as with previous MCU flicks. The plot follows a post-Endgame Thor as he grapples with his new place in the cosmos before he teams back up with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster/Mighty Thor to tackle Gorr the God Butcher – played with twisted glee by the always excellent Christian Bale.
The 38% could be explained predominantly by the post-credit scene, in which Zeus (Russell Crowe) tasked his son Hercules with tracking down the God of Thunder. Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein has taken on the mantle of the Greek demi-god, and the Fandom community could have been trawling the wiki for more information about one of the MCU’s newer and more welcome additions. Ladies and gentlemen, the gods are well and truly here.
7. Doctor Strange in
the Multiverse of Madness
Touted as a movie that would shake the MCU to its core, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw a 45% increase in interest post-release. Not surprising perhaps when you consider it dropped so many nuggets of world-building, introduced new characters, reintroduced old ones, and seeded Easter eggs for hardcore fans.
With Stephen Strange trying to take down Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch (Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively), the film had us hurtling from dimension to dimension, each with their own different quirks and characteristics for Fandom users to pore over.
In typical MCU fashion, we were also treated to a whopper of a post-credits stinger as fans were introduced to Clea, played by Charlize Theron. Not known to a lot of casual fans, and not even named in her brief appearance, fans jumped onto the wiki in search of answers.
6. The Bob’s Burgers Movie
Ranking higher than two MCU features, an Agatha Christie adaptation by Academy Award winner Kenneth Branagh, and a tentpole title from Disney… sits The Bob’s Burgers Movie! Released in May of 2022, the film saw a 54% increase in wiki traffic following its release. Coming out with very little promotion or advertising, The Bob’s Burgers Movie did well critically, if not commercially.
Maybe people who had missed it in the TV schedules wanted to check out what this strange animation that received a theatrical release was. Who knows? It had been delayed for around two years prior to release (thanks, Covid), so maybe it drummed up rabid enthusiasm from the Bob’s Burgers community in those intervening years, or newcomers hungry for a trip to the movies following lockdowns and delayed releases thought they’d check it out. Needless to say, Fandom’s Bob’s Burgers community is always committed, passionate, and active whether there’s a movie on the horizon or not. Either way, we’re happy this got its moment. We need more animation, not less.
5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
The most recent release on the list and the latest installment in the MCU, closing out Phase Four, sits Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Seeing a jump of 59% following its November release, Wakanda Forever had the Fandom community pouncing on the wiki to learn more about the new lore, characters, and worlds that the film introduced us to. Some of which differed from comic-book mythology.
We met Tenoch Huerta’s Namor and his people, whose home is the ancient underwater city of Talokan, and Michaela Coel’s Aneka who along with Okoye takes up the armor of the Midnight Angels. Wakanda Forever managed to pull off the unthinkable – further the MCU and the arc of the Black Panther, while simultaneously honouring the legacy of the late Chadwick Boseman who formerly inhabited the role.
We also had a tease of where the Black Panther title and franchise could go in the future in a heartwarming post-credits sequence that introduced us to a new young character — another wiki traffic driver. Beautifully done, and the Fandom community largely agrees.
4. The Batman
One of the best comic book movies in years, according to many, debuted in March 2022 — Matt Reeves’ The Batman. After its release weekend, the wiki experienced a 99% bump in visitors. Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, and Paul Dano as they navigate what is arguably the darkest and grittiest Gotham we’ve seen on the big screen, it offered plenty of reasons to jump into the wiki after the credits rolled.
Barry Keoghan’s cameo as The Joker towards the end of the film, the canon of Selina Kyle’s parentage, as well as the mysterious and very purposely green substance that turned Batman into a raging beast ever so briefly: all these things prompted further investigation. Matt Reeves also delicately placed Easter eggs and cheeky winks to comic lore throughout the film, setting up a variety of stories that could exist in a future Batverse, separate from the DCEU — and this whetted fan appetites enough to spend time on the wiki soaking up every last morsel of detail.
3. Scream
If you cast your mind all the way back to January 2022, you might remember that the latest installment of the iconic black comedy-slasher series released. Enjoying a post-release visitor increase of 152% to its wiki, Scream delighted audiences as some of the legacy characters made their returns, delivering pleasing performances alongside franchise newcomers.
Taking place 25 years after the original movie, a new Ghostface has emerged and is targeting a group of teenagers with ties to the original killings. With a series so rooted in nostalgia and self-aware references to pop culture, it’s not a shock that so many Fandom readers wanted to dive in and explore the many connections between this film, the 1996 original, and the sequels in between.
Like Death on the Nile, it’s also a whodunit, which has fans intent on figuring out the killer or killers (the franchise is known for having more than one Ghostface operating at any one time) meaning it has the added appeal and impetus to check out the wiki that that brings.
2. Hellraiser
Coming in at number two is the latest addition/reboot of the iconic Hellraiser franchise, which saw a staggering 393% boost to its wiki post-release. Released without much fanfare aside from lengthy pre-release chatter among diehard fans and genre media which built excitement, the film headed direct to streaming, perhaps making it easy for this film to be overlooked. Particularly when you consider the reception and low-key releases of some of the previous chapters in the Hellraiser franchise.
But, unlike other horror reboots in recent years, Hellraiser was judged by many to have tackled its history and lore with sensitivity to the source material and gory attention to detail, delighting fans and giving them something to chew on.
Reintroducing Pinhead, this time dubbed the Priest, leader of the Cenobites and chief lieutenant to Leviathan, while also giving us new, gloriously gory sequences and instant-favourite Cenobites such as the Gasp and the Weeper, Hellraiser was pure pleasure without the pain for horror fans this year, and Fandom users were intrigued enough to immerse themselves in the wiki to soak up the labyrinthine mythology. After all, we have such sights to show you…
1. Prey
To many the surprise of the year, Prey released to little fanfare and yet became a global sensation for its action, acting, pacing, and respect for the culture of Native people. Revitalising an ailing franchise is easier said than done, but Prey drew people back to the Predator (and by extension, Alien because of their crossover universes) franchise in their droves, with a whopping 408% boost to the movie wiki post-release. Prey seamlessly connected to the franchise’s lore, finally giving us some answers we’ve been craving since 1990.
Everyone at Fandom can’t wait to see where the franchise goes next. Personally, we’re all in on director Dan Trachtenberg just crafting a Predator story every now and then set at different points in human history. Predators in Ancient Egypt? Sure. Predators during the Vietnam War? Absolutely. Predators during Victorian England? Sign. Us. Up.