In a week in which summer blockbusters asserted themselves on the Lycos 50, the breakout performance of actor Josh Hartnett (#11) in Pearl Harbor (#3) is perhaps the most surprising -- and historic -- development.
Harnett this week ranks higher than any actor has ever ranked in the history of the Lycos 50. Even Russell Crowe, when Gladiator was at its peak, never got above #37. Harnett receives more than four times as many searches as co-star Ben Affleck, regarded as the bigger star.
Nearly all of the interest in Hartnett has come after the movie's opening. Affleck searches have gone up by a healthy 160 percent since Pearl Harbor opened two weeks ago. By comparison, Hartnett searches went up by over 1000 percent during the same period. Two weeks ago, Affleck received more queries than Hartnett. Now it isn't even close.
Kate Beckinsale searches have gone up in a similar fashion but are still far below Hartnett searches. For a male star to outdraw his female co-star in search traffic is exceedingly rare.
The astounding popularity of Hartnett could mean a windfall for the producers of the film O, a teenage update of Shakespeare's Othello. The film stars Hartnett (as Iago) along with Mekhi Phifer and Lycos user favorite Julia Stiles and has been the subject of controversy because of teen violence (violence which comes directly from the Shakespeare original, of course).
After numerous postponements -- the film was originally scheduled for August 1999 -- O is now scheduled for an August 24 release and could ride Hartnett-fever to a big teen audience.
MORE MOVIES: With the opening of Tomb Raider (#36) just a nine days away, the advertising has gotten hot and heavy. That puts both Tomb Raider and its star Angelina Jolie (40) into the Lycos 50. This is Jolie's first appearance since she was in Gone in 60 Seconds in June 2000.
We also get our first appearance from Moulin Rouge (#38), with more than ten percent of searches asking for the soundtrack. And Lord of the Rings (#46) is back thanks to the debut of the second trailer online and in theatres with Pearl Harbor.
One hit movie not making the Lycos 50 is Shrek, which still is getting fewer searches than even older movies like The Matrix. We were wrong in our prediction that Shrek would not be a success, but the film's relatively low search traffic both before and after its opening may teach us a valuable lesson. Movies aimed at children do not garner significant interest online when compared with movies aimed at teenagers and adults.
NON-VIRUS ALERT: The other big story this week is the spreading of the SULFNBK virus (#2) hoax. Searches for the supposed virus triple this week, as gullible computer users spread word of the virus by email and less gullible computer users go searching on Lycos to find out what the story is.
It turns out that the SULFNBK problem may not be a hoax, per se, but rather a mistaken email turned into mass confusion. This article delineates the possibility that the SULFNBK problem was caused when a user who had a different virus erroneously believed that his problem was caused by the SULFNBK.EXE file. Once urban legend starts to spread on the Web, even logic cannot stop it.
One of the searches we're beginning to see is SULFNBK download, as users who have fallen for the hoax go searching for a way to replace the deleted file on their hard drive.
Meanwhile, another virus surprisingly made almost no impact on the Web this week. As this story from Wired News describes, a new "worm" virus promises free naked pictures of Jennifer Lopez (#13), but having learned from the Anna K. virus earlier this year users are holding their curiosity in check.
BLAH BLAH BLAH: We have now officially run out of "reality television" puns, but Big Brother (#7) continues to be a international sensation. Searches explode again this week thanks to both the four week old Australian version and the week old second British version.
Requests that specified the U.K. show outdistanced requests that specified Australia roughly four-to-one. The star so far in Britain (where our sister company Terra hosts the Big Brother UK website) seems to be a 33-year old English teacher named Penny. She appears to be similar to Jerri on Survivor II, sexually frisky with the other contestants and at the same time bossy and domineering.
France, on the other hand, may be tiring of the controversy regarding their Big Brother clone, Loft Story. It falls off the Lycos 50 this week with only half as many searches as it had one week ago.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Searches for Robert Blake (#32) are still strong, but searches for his murdered wife Bonny Lee Bakley have practically disappeared? Carmen Electra (#31) is back, and strong, because she's hosting MTV's summer beach dance party show Hypermix? Thanks to her run-in with the Austin police, presidential daughter Jenna Bush nearly makes the list (she's #61)? Excitement over their new single "Pop" and a summer tour continues to power 'N Sync (#16) back near the top of the Lycos 50.
NEW THIS WEEK: Josh Hartnett, Carmen Electra, French Open tennis tournament, computer game Diablo II, Tomb Raider, Moulin Rouge, Angelina Jolie, Christina Aguilera, Lord of the Rings.
DROPOUTS: Memorial Day, The Holocaust, Loft Story, Digimon, Vietnam War, Brooke Burke, Allen Iverson, Destiny's Child, The X-Files.
BIGGEST RISE: Big Brother, up 38 places to #7.
BIGGEST DROP: Tool, down 22 places to #45.
ONE YEAR AGO: At #20, Thandie Newton of Mission Impossible: 2 was the breakout star of the summer of 2000. She has yet to capitalize on that success, but she'll be in next year's big budget thriller/remake The Truth About Charlie with Mark Wahlberg. She'll be playing a role originally played by Audrey Hepburn.
TOMORROW: Why is Pokemon (#8) still so popular?
