In many ways, it's been the year of the comeback. A record landslide brought Labour back to power in Britain, for the first time in 14 years (and five prime ministers). Donald Trump’s triumphant return in the US is almost complete, surviving assassination attempts, election defeats and a historic criminal conviction.
And 30 years after they first emerged, Noel and Liam Gallagher reconciled once more, selling 1.4 million Oasis tickets to fans in 158 countries for a world tour to look forward to in 2025. Let’s go back through some of the most memorable, important, and unmissable stories from the last year.
January. In 2023, Barbenheimer was one of the most memorable film battles in Hollywood history. This year started by crowning a winner. Oppenheimer was named Best Picture at the Oscars in January. Barbie still came out on top in terms of ticket sales, but our analysis showed that Oppenheimer's win ended what would have been a 20-year sequence of the Best Picture winner not even being in the top 10 highest grossing films of that year, going back to the final Lord of the Rings film in 2004.
The move to reward smaller films at the Oscars is very much a 21st-century phenomenon. Prior to 2004, the Best Picture winner had been in the top 10 every year going back to at least 1977. February. In February our reporting highlighted the tragic stories of people being sexually assaulted while in NHS mental health care.
