60 Fun Facts About Hard Pop Culture

Barbie (2023) took the live-action comedy worldwide gross record from which 2011 film?

It also took the domestic record from Home Alone, which had held it since 1990.

Which 2023 film was the first shot partly on IMAX black-and-white film, a stock Kodak created for it?

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema alternated colour and black-and-white to separate subjective and objective points of view.

Under which collective name do Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, work?

The pair had previously made Swiss Army Man and handled the film's visual effects in-house.

Before Parasite, which 1955 film was the last to win both the Palme d'Or and Best Picture?

Only The Lost Weekend, Marty and Parasite (and later Anora) have taken both prizes.

Which 2022 sequel became Tom Cruise's highest-grossing film, passing $800 million within a month?

Paramount kept it in theatres for an extended run at Cruise's insistence instead of the usual 45-day streaming window.

Where did Avatar: The Way of Water rank among the highest-grossing films ever after its first theatrical run?

Its $2.32 billion put it behind only the original Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.

Which was the first superhero film ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

It also brought Marvel Studios its first Academy Award wins, for costume design, production design and score.

Which 2024 release became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time?

Within three days it had already passed Pretty Woman as Disney's biggest R-rated release.

Which Pixar sequel passed The Lion King as the highest-grossing animated film in September 2024?

It was later overtaken by China's Ne Zha 2 just nine months after release.

Which presenter read out La La Land as Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars before the correction to Moonlight?

Beatty had hesitated over the wrong envelope, so Dunaway read the card. Moonlight was the actual winner.

The Duffer Brothers first developed Stranger Things under what working title, named for a Long Island town?

The setting moved to fictional Hawkins, Indiana, when the brothers decided to film in Georgia.

Exterior shots of King's Landing in Game of Thrones were largely filmed in which walled coastal city?

Season one used Malta; production shifted to Croatia from season two onward.

Sudeikis first played Ted Lasso in 2013 promos for which network's Premier League coverage?

The ads ran seven years before the Apple TV+ series premiered.

HBO's Euphoria, starring Zendaya, is adapted from a 2012 miniseries made in which country?

HBO's head of drama pitched the American version as 'Kids meets Trainspotting'.

Jenna Ortega's viral dance in Wednesday is set to 'Goo Goo Muck', a 1981 song by which band?

Ortega choreographed it herself, borrowing from Siouxsie Sioux, Bob Fosse and 1980s goth-club footage.

The Queen's Gambit is based on a 1983 novel by which author, who also wrote The Hustler?

Chess coach Bruce Pandolfini had consulted on the novel decades before advising the series.

Which 2024 show set an Emmy record by winning 18 awards for a single season?

It was also the first Japanese-language series to win Outstanding Drama Series.

Which comedy first swept all seven major comedy awards at a single Primetime Emmys, in 2020?

Toronto lit the CN Tower gold to celebrate; Dan Levy alone took home writing, directing and series awards.

What is the Upper West Side apartment building in Only Murders in the Building called?

The show's exteriors use the real Belnord on West 86th Street.

The second season of The White Lotus was filmed at a Four Seasons resort in which region?

Season one was set in Hawaii and season three in Thailand.

Which 1972 song held the record for longest Hot 100 number one until 'All Too Well (10 Minute Version)'?

Guinness World Records recognised the feat; the original 2012 album cut ran 5:28.

'Old Town Road' broke the 16-week Hot 100 record shared by 'One Sweet Day' and which 2017 hit?

The Billy Ray Cyrus remix was released specifically to keep the song at number one long enough to break the tie.

Beyoncé finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2025 with which record?

The same night she became the first Black artist to win Best Country Album.

Which Kendrick Lamar album won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music?

The Pulitzer board called it 'a virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity'.

What was the first BTS song recorded entirely in English?

It was released in August 2020 and debuted at number one on the Hot 100.

Which group became the first Asian act ever to headline the Coachella festival, in 2023?

Their Born Pink tour was also the highest-grossing tour ever by a female group.

Who was the first non-English-language artist to top Spotify's year-end most-streamed list, in 2020?

He went on to be Spotify's most-streamed artist of the year a record four times.

Which artist persuaded Spotify to remove the default shuffle button from album pages in 2021?

The change coincided with the release of her album 30.

Billie Eilish, the first Oscar winner born in the 21st century, won for the theme of which film?

She was 17 when she recorded it, the youngest artist ever to sing a Bond theme.

Which rapper's five virtual Fortnite concerts in April 2020 drew more than 27 million participants?

The shows used visuals from his Astroworld tour and shifted Fortnite-branded Cactus Jack merchandise.

Which retailer made the blue-and-black or white-and-gold 'dress' that went viral in 2015?

The dress was really blue and black; the firm produced a one-off white-and-gold version for charity.

What was the real name of the internet-famous Grumpy Cat?

Her permanent scowl was caused by a form of feline dwarfism.

The Doge meme is built on a 2010 photograph of a Shiba Inu with what name?

Her owner Atsuko Sato ran one of Japan's most popular pet blogs; the dog died in 2024 aged 18.

The 2017 Fyre Festival was supposed to take place on which Bahamian island?

McFarland was later sentenced to six years in prison for wire fraud.

On what date did Twitter officially shut down its six-second video app Vine?

Co-founder Dom Hofmann later launched a successor called Byte, which itself closed in 2023.

Which app passed 100 million users in five days in 2023, the fastest-growing ever?

It beat the record set months earlier by ChatGPT.

Which streamer broke Twitch's individual peak-viewer record in March 2018 playing Fortnite with Drake?

About 635,000 people watched at once; he beat his own record a month later at Ninja Vegas.

In June 2024, MrBeast overtook which channel to become the most-subscribed on YouTube?

Years earlier he had bought billboards to help PewDiePie in the same rivalry.

The New York Times bought Wordle from Josh Wardle in January 2022 for a price described how?

Vanity Fair reported the Times narrowly outbid The Washington Post.

The 2018 game Among Us was made by which small US studio?

The studio paused work on The Henry Stickmin Collection to build the game's first map, The Skeld.

Which company originally developed and published Pokémon Go in 2016?

The idea grew out of the developer's earlier location-based game Ingress.

Roughly how many copies has Minecraft sold, making it the best-selling video game of all time?

It passed 176 million on its tenth anniversary in 2019 and has kept climbing.

Which novelist was hired to write the backstory and worldbuilding for FromSoftware's Elden Ring?

Director Hidetaka Miyazaki stayed lead writer for the in-game story and gave the novelist the events before it.

How many players compete in the deadly games of Squid Game season one?

Each eliminated player added ₩100 million to the prize, for a total of ₩45.6 billion.

What is the name of the Roy family's media conglomerate in Succession?

Its news arm, ATN, is the network Tom Wambsgans ends up running.

At the 2009 MTV VMAs, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for which award?

He argued that Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' had 'one of the best videos of all time'.

How many years was Will Smith banned from Academy events after slapping Chris Rock in 2022?

He resigned his Academy membership before the ban was announced.

Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with her second child while performing at which event in February 2023?

It was her first live performance in more than five years.

Before 'drivers license', Olivia Rodrigo starred as Nini Salazar-Roberts in which Disney+ show?

She had earlier starred on Disney Channel's Bizaardvark from 2016 to 2019.

Harry Styles made his feature film debut as a soldier named Alex in which Christopher Nolan film?

He later appeared in Eternals, Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.

Which was the first YouTube video ever to reach one billion views, in December 2012?

YouTube marked the milestone with a dancing Psy icon beside the view counter.

Which Kate Bush song hit No. 1 in eight countries in 2022 thanks to Stranger Things?

It became the most-streamed song on Spotify in both the UK and the US that summer.

Joe Exotic's zoo, the setting of Tiger King, was in which US state?

His rival Carole Baskin's Big Cat Rescue is in Tampa, Florida.

At the 2014 Oscars, John Travolta mangled Idina Menzel's name into what?

A year later she returned the favour, introducing him as 'Glom Gazingo'.

At 2024 Comic-Con, Robert Downey Jr. was announced as returning to the MCU as whom?

He was cast to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

TikTok absorbed which lip-sync app on 2 August 2018, merging their accounts into one platform?

ByteDance had paid nearly $1 billion for the Shanghai-based startup the previous November.

Which YouTube video was the first to reach 10 billion views, in January 2022?

Pinkfong's version had already overtaken Despacito as the most-viewed video in November 2020.

Who narrates Bridgerton as the voice of Lady Whistledown?

Creator Chris Van Dusen built the show's alternative history around Queen Charlotte's rumoured African ancestry.

After the Lost episode 'Numbers' aired in 2005, fans rushed to play which sequence in lotteries?

A Mega Millions draw in 2011 matched four of the six, paying out to thousands of small winners.

The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge that swept social media raised money to fight which disease?

Co-founded by Pat Quinn and Pete Frates, it raised more than $115 million worldwide in 2014 alone.