It’s been a big year for superhero movies, but two of the year’s most popular comic-book adaptations — as far as Google searches go, at least — took a decidedly different approach to standard capes-and-tights fare.
Google posted its rankings for the year’s top search terms, and Ryan Reynolds’ unconventional, R-rated hit Deadpool and Warner Bros. Pictures’ supervillain team-up movie Suicide Squad topped the list of the year’s most-searched movies. The two films topped the worldwide search rankings for movie projects, with Deadpool leading the pack, while Suicide Squad topped the list of the most-searched movies in the U.S. during 2016, followed by Warner Bros. Pictures’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The full list of the year’s top search trends is posted at the Google Trends hub, band it offers some interesting bits of information about the films generating the most search buzz throughout 2016.
As far as film genres go, comic book movies dominated the year’s searches, with superhero stories accounting for four of the top five most-searched films worldwide. Along with Deadpool and Suicide Squad, superhero brawl-fests Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice also ranked among the top worldwide movie searches on Google for the year. The only non-superhero movie to make it into the top five films was Leonardo DiCaprio’s bear-battling Academy Award darling, The Revenant.
Given that Deadpool recently earned a Golden Globe Award nomination, its presence among the year’s most popular searches isn’t too surprising and only adds to the list of unexpected accolades for director Tim Miller’s film.
The list of most-searched movies in the U.S. was a little more varied for the year, with Warner Bros. Pictures cleaning up with Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman at the top of the rankings, followed by Finding Dory, The Revenant, and Zootopia. Rounding out the top 10 were Mel Gibson’s war drama Hacksaw Ridge, Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange, creepy drama 10 Cloverfield Lane, the controversial Ghostbusters reboot, and the romantic drama Me Before You.