The X-Men is the most popular movie of 2000, according to searches by Lycos users.
We have included all searches for a movie and its sequels on our first-ever year-end roundup of the top movies online, but four of our top five movies haven't seen sequels? yet. More interesting is that our top ten, topped by those mighty mutants, features only four movies that actually came out in 2000.
THE TOP 20:
1. The X-Men
2. Star Wars
3. Titanic
4. The Matrix
5. Gladiator
6. Lord of the Rings
7. American Pie
8. Mission: Impossible 2
9. Austin Powers
10. Scream 3
11. The Blair Witch Project
12. The Wizard of Oz
13. American Beauty
14. The Grinch
15. Toy Story 2
16. Coyote Ugly
17. Charlie's Angels
18. Fight Club
19. Scary Movie
20. The Perfect Storm
WHAT YEAR IS THIS: Less than half of the movies on this list came out in 2000. Whether due to DVD releases or interest in possible sequels, movies from 1998 and 1999 maintained their popularity in 2000 and in many cases outdueled this year's movie crop.
WICKED WITCH I: The Blair Witch Project received more than six times as many searches as its sequel, Book of Shadows.
WICKED WITCH II: The Wizard of Oz is more than three times as popular as any other pre-1975 film. Gone With the Wind is second.
STRANGELY ABSENT: While The Sixth Sense was an international phenomenon, Unbreakable doesn't seem to have garnered anywhere as much interest despite the same star and director.
THE ULTIMATE ONE TO WATCH: That's right: Movie #6 hasn't even come out yet. In fact, the first movie of the Lord of the Rings trilogy will not be released until December 19, 2001.
We can't stress enough the amount of anticipation we are seeing for the upcoming series of movies based on Tolkien's classic fantasy novels. Lord of the Rings is receiving as many searches one year before its release as Dungeons and Dragons received one week before its release. The film has everything needed to be an online phenomenon: tons of special effects, a long-standing place in pop culture, international interest, and a hot actress, namely Liv Tyler.
The first film is actually called The Fellowship of the Ring, although nobody searches for it under that name, and also stars Elijah Wood as hobbit Frodo Baggins and Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf.
OTHER ONES TO WATCH 2001: It is going to be a huge year for adaptations of books, games, and old TV shows? Angelina Jolie stars in Tomb Raider, Gary Oldman and some unknown Brits in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Rachael Lee Cook and Tara Reid in Josie and the Pussycats, and Sarah Michelle Geller in Scooby-Doo. Scooby, by the way, will be entirely computer-animated, just like (shiver) Jar-Jar Binks.
On the non-adaptation side of things, expect success and searches for Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor and Steven Spielberg's A.I., starring Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law in a project originally planned by the late Stanley Kubrick.
If we're making it sound like 2001 looks to be a more interesting year for movies than 2000 was, you're right. Other than The X-Men, Gladiator, and maybe The Grinch, no movie really captured a lasting amount of online interest this year.
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the Web's Most Wanted News Stories of 2000, topped by two items which will make the year-end Top 20.
Note: These rankings reflect all terms entered into the Lycos search engine by users between January 1 and November 30, 2000, except for The Grinch, which is estimated with the inclusion of December searches. All search variations and sequels are included in these totals: for instance, searches for Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible Movie are counted as searches for Mission Impossible 2. Searches which specified the song "American Pie" were not included in the total for the movie American Pie. For more details about how we create these lists, please see our Lycos 50 FAQ.
