Top 12 Geek Stories of 2023

#12. Shohei Ohtani signs with Dodgers for $700 million. One of the best baseball players on the planet signed a record breaking contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-years, $700 million. However, Ohtani deferred payment on all but $20 million until after the life of the contract so the Dodgers would have financial flexibility.

#11. Fantastic Four, Superman: Legacy casting. The news of the casting of these two iconic movies are one of the biggest things people can talk about. While there has been no confirmed casting for Fantastic Four, there have been a lot of rumors. As for Superman: Legacy, David Corenswet is Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult was cast as Lex Luthor.

#10. Disney vs. Desantis. Florida Governor Ron Desantis planned to take away Disney’s tax free status. Disney played the game and made it so the new people in charge had no power. Desantis took it as an act of war. Unfortunately for him, Disney made him look fairly foolish.

#9. Box Office Struggles. The box office was filled with low totals and major flops. There were only a couple of huge hits this summer and films from Disney, WB and Sony struggle to make back their money. Part of the trouble is film budgets are out of control. Another reason is streaming makes it too easy to see films at home. 

#8. UAP Hearing. UAPs or unidentified aerial phenomena became news this year. Formerly known as UFOs, the House of Representatives held hearing about the mysterious phenomenon. What does the government really know? Will we ever know?

#7. Jonathan Majors Case. Jonathan Majors, actor who played Kang the Conqueror in the MCU, was arrested on several charges of domestic abuse. Majors was found guilty on two of the lesser charges, but it has still cost him his role as Kang.

#6. WWE Sold. The WWE was sold to Endeavor, the company that co-owned the UFC. Vince McMahon had forced his way back into the WWE, but, after the sale, he was removed from creative completely and Triple H was given total control.

#5. Twitter sold. Twitter, the social media platform, was sold to Elon Musk and the name was changed to X. Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter only to send the social media platform into the red. 

#4. Marvel Studio Struggles. Marvel Studios has had a difficult year. The public view is that the studio is in chaos. Variety published an article that made this very claim. The internet is filled with negative pieces about the MCU, because they have their own prejudices and need for clicks on their articles. Kevin Feige is making plans to right the course.

#3. Taylor Swift Tour. The Taylor Swift Eras Tour was a massive success, making over $900 million, estimated by Billboard. It is on track to becoming the highest grossing tour ever. A movie was also made out of the tour and it made millions at the box office.

#2. Barbenheimer. Two major movies opened on the same day, Barbie and Oppenheimer. There was a promotion combining the idea of both movies and seeing them both as a double feature. The promotion was incredibly success as both Barbie and Oppenheimer over performed in a summer of flops. Barbie wound up making over 1.3 billion and Oppenheimer was around $900 million. Many people (including myself) dressed up for the double feature in pink or with hats. It was a major success for theaters that could have used one.

#1. Writer and Actors Strikes. Hollywood was froze in place once again as two union strikes happened in the summer. First, the writers went on strike and then, not too long later, the actors followed suit. Thankfully, both strikes were settles before the end of the year, but did run for many months.