...and considering how FREAKING GOOD Across the Spider-Verse is, I anticipate Beyond the Spider-Verse to straight-up shatter box office records next year due to the same dynamic.

Especially since the sequel was riskier and even further out there.

If you want to see what “everyone didn’t go see the first movie on the first weekend, but whenever they got around to it, they loved it like the rest of us” looks like, it took ITSV three weeks what ATSV did in three days at the US box office ($120 million). 

I especially enjoy the current “MCU fatigue” discord despite Marvel Studios having its best non-Avenger 12-month stretch at the box office with No Way Home, Dr. Strange 2, Wakanda Forever, and Thor 4 from December 2021-22.

really astonishing feat to come up with a sequel so strong when the first one was so risky and out there 

Keep in mind that Disney+ lost the company over half-a-billion dollars in the last quarter. The same quarter the previous year, D+ lost $887-million.

As a writer and former film professional myself I hate to admit this, but this really isn’t any different than back in the days of television, is it not? Most shows weren’t on VHS, and DVD was an unexpected second life. And most shows never go to syndication. They go on for a few years and then get cancelled, half of…

Yeah, that disqualifier is pretty dumb. That ep is a classic. “Stick up for yourself, poindexter!”

Maybe the list should have been titled “Simpsons destination episodes,” because yeah, Summer of 4 Ft. 2 is the definitive “vacation” episode.

Krusty brand imitation gruel. 9/10 orphans can’t tell the difference.

“I thought we were america’s scrod basket.”

“I thought we were america’s scrod basket.”

I’d say that Kamp Krusty should qualify as a vacation episode as well, screw the qualifier. I mean it IS a summer camp.

I think it’s incredibly sad how that sentiment has more or less erased them from popular culture.

It’s been 20 years and some of my friends and I will still end a story with, “And that’s when the CHUDs came at me.”

“Hi... ummm... let me have some of those porno magazines... large box of condoms... a couple of those panty shields, and some illegal fireworks, and one of those disposable enemas. Ehhh... make it two.”

Same here: and the 1970's NYC that Homer remembers is SO awesome and dead on. That clip before the CHUDs got him is pretty much my memory of NYC as a kid in the 70's and 80's.

You got the dud!

The NYC episode has no “uncomfortable” gags. It hearkens back to a time when the Twin Towers were simply a part of the American landscape and not the touchstone for a national tragedy of massive scope. Watching that episode makes me happy in a way I can’t describe.

Was expecting to see it at #1. Granted, I haven’t seen the last 15 seasons or so.